Anthropological Foundations of Foreign Policy in View of Imam Khomeini

Man is the basis of humanities and social science theories. As such, attention to man and his nature can be taken as underlying foundation of theories on foreign policy and international relations. Despite ignoring man and his role in a key part of the age of dominance of theories of structuralism, the revival of foreign policy analysis, as a field of study, has once again brought man into the focus of attention in theories on foreign policy and international relations so that important works on these fields highlight paying attention to various aspects of human beings. In view of Imam Khomeini, man’s role is pivotal. Apparently, man and his nature constitute the underlying foundation of the majority of his thoughts, particularly, in the fields of foreign policy and international relations. Given the above, this research paper intends to review foreign policy in view of Imam Khomeini. Unlike theories on foreign policy and international relations that analyze Imam Khomeini’s views on foreign policy through theoretical frameworks, we intend to review his thoughts through answering the principal question of this study: Based on what anthropological concepts can we understand Imam Khomeini’s opinion on foreign policy? Apparently, in Imam Khomeini’s philosophy, human disposition (Fitrat) and concealment of disposition (Ihtijab Fitrat) are two fundamental elements in his understanding of man and the nature of international system and communities. From this point of view, as a follower of Mulla Sadra’s philosophy, Imam Khomeini adopts a micro and anthropological level of analysis and continues with generalization of the idea to a sociological level to argue different types of communities, nature of communities and the order governing the international system.