Explaining the Formative Factors of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Geopolitical Realms

Foreign policy of a country is usually derived from its geopolitics. Therefore, studying geopolitical characteristics of a country enables us to understand and analyse the country’s behavior in the international arena. This article explores the nature and characteristics of Iran’s geopolitics, and its main question is what factors shape the country’s geopolitics and its realms. It is argued that four factors have formed the geopolitical realms of the Islamic Republic of Iran, namely, ideology, geographical location, economic interests and political culture. This can be seen in official documents such as the Constitution as well as nonofficial ones. For this research, a hundred experts and scholars are asked to fill in a questionnaire on the relative significance of the above factors. The results indicate that ideology is regarded as the most important factor and economic interests as the least one. The study also shows that geopolitical realms of the Islamic republic of Iran are the following: 1- the Islamic world, 2- the Shi’ite community, 3-the Iranian civilization and culture, 4- the Middle East, 5- the Persian Gulf, 6-Anti-American nations, 7- Anti-Zionist nations, 8- world liberation movements, 9- world’s oppressed, 10- Caspian Sea countries, 11- the Central Asia, 12- The Caucasus, 13- the South Asia, 14- the Latin America. Among these realms, the Shi’ite community is regarded as the most important and the Caspian Sea countries as the less important realms in determining Iran’s strategy and geopolitical actions.