Iran’s Nuclear Quest: Identity, Symbolic Discourse, and Rhetorical Coercion

• In Event: Identity and Foreign Policy Behavior

Abstract

Recent analyses of the Iranian nuclear program tend to view this program as a result either of a balancing strategy against external forces or as a part of an ideational struggle between a fundamentalist regime and the West. These studies generally overlook the role of domestic politics in Iran’s foreign policymaking. This paper presents an alternative explanation of Iran’s nuclear quest. Drawing on an original archival study of Farsi newspapers and an analysis of Iranian leaders’ public speeches, the paper argues rhetorical entrapment transformed Iran’s nuclear program from a method of balancing to an element of Iran’s revolutionary identity. Consequently, Iran’s nuclear program safeguards different components of Iran’s revolutionary identity in foreign policy domain through securitization of the relationship between Iran and the West. Additionally, the rhetoric of identity around the nuclear program is less contestable and lays the ground for rhetorical coercion and dismissing pragmatist path in the relationship between Iran and the West. Finally, the nuclear program is a compelling way to delegitimize the United States and the global order in domestic and regional level. The findings of the paper have important implications for domestic sources of foreign policy in authoritarian settings and securitization studies more generally.

Author

• Alireza Raisi, Northeastern University