ANALOGICAL REASONING AND FOREIGN POLICY-MAKING (Case study: The Historical Analogies used by Foreign Analogizers about Iran's Nuclear Issue)

The nuclear issue as one of the important issues of foreign policy of Iran has been studied by researchers of this field based on various theoretical approaches. Analogical reasoning is one of the cognitive approaches in the analysis of foreign policy that has been neglected in Iran's foreign policy analysis. This research using analogical reasoning study aims to identify the historical analogies employed on the Iranian nuclear issue during the years 2003-2016 and tries to show that how some senior government officials and analysts outside Iran have shaped some analogical battle in dealing with the Iran's nuclear issue in terms of comparing this event with some other historical events. Research findings suggest that "The Munich Analogy", "The Yalta Analogy", "The Soviet Union Analogy", "The Nixon-Red/China Analogy", "The Reykjavik Analogy" and "The North Korea Analogy" are analogies that government officials and analysts have used them to express their arguments about the current situation of "Iran's nuclear issue" and state their reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the nuclear negotiations and through this, they have tried to justify their policies and persuade public opinion.