Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs
Volume:8 Issue: 2, Summer-Autumn 2017

The US Congress, as a legislative pillar of democracy, has a significant impact on American foreign policy. Nevertheless, the role of the US Congress is not limited to domestic politics rather they would usually shape the country’s foreign policy. Since the Islamic Revolution, the US Congress has adopted an aggressive approach towards Iran. The US legislative institution, as a domestic source of US foreign policy, has shaped US foreign policy toward Iran by imposing economic sanctions. The purpose of the research is to increase the Iranian officials’ understanding of US domestic politics. Therefore, the main question of the research is concerned with the impact of the US congress on American foreign policy towards Iran (2005-2017). In order to answer the main question, the authors would use neo-classical theory. In addition to systemic factors, neoclassic realism considers domestic factors to explain foreign policy. The findings of research suggest that the US congress has encouraged the US administrations to pursue an aggressive policy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran by imposing economic sanctions and persuading the US administrations to implement them.

The Syrian crisis could be perceived as the most important international crisis in the recent decade. Despite its extensively varied regional and international ramifications and repercussions, this crisis has changed Iran-Russia cooperation patterns in significant way. Prior to the outbreak of crisis in Syria, Iran and Russia had limited, traditional cooperation at different junctures in Afghanistan, the Tajikistan civil war and some regional issues in the Central Asia and the Caucasus. However, the new era of Iranian-Russian relations in Syria exhibits a new level of bilateral relations. Thus, the current Iran-Russia bilateral ties could be assessed within the framework of strategic partnership. Iran-Russia strategic partnership pattern has emerged in line with three essential criteria of environmental uncertainty (popular uprisings in the Middle East), strategic fit (compatibility and complementarity of Iranian and Russian interests and resources) and the system principle (opposition to the US new hegemonic order and exercising efforts to institute a desired order in the Middle East). Compared to traditional patterns such as strategic alliance, thematicity and low commitment costs of the new pattern have encouraged Tehran and Moscow to pick it up. This paper attempts to answer this question: what mechanism underlies the development of Iran-Russia relations since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis?

Saudi Arabia's foreign policy against the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) as the dependent variable is affected by the factors and elements of domestic level and also by the factors and elements of macro structural level as independent variables. Meanwhile, the present study aims at clarifying the dialectics of structural factors (regional-international developments) and those at agent level (Saudi Arabia's domestic developments) in shaping the Saudi Arabia's foreign policy against Iran. The present study, by means of structure-agent approach, seeks to explore the roots of shaping Saudi Arabia's aggressive foreign policy against the IRI in the interval of 2011-2013 and the concerned signals and proofs of the Saudi behavior as a question. The outcome of the present study suggests that the developments at the macro-structural level such as the international anarchy, the change of US strategy as a superpower, change in the order and balance between and among the regional powers after the Arabian uprisings of 2011 along with change at Saudi agent level, i.e. the rise of Mohammad bin Salman's team as the offensive elites, led to the shaping of Saudi Arabia's aggressive foreign policy against Iran in 2011-2018. Admittedly, these developments at the macro-structural level along with the domestic ones in Saudi Arabia resulted in shaping Saudi’s aggressive behavior against Iran in a bilateral dialectical equation. In the same vein, the proofs of this behavior against Iran at the two levels of structure and agent include the creation of military-security coalition, establishment of amicable relations with Israel, exertion of institutional pressures, economic war, media-propaganda war and endeavor to exacerbate Iran's home unrests.

Considering the developments of the international community and the emergence of a relative turn from materialism and central security to culture-based discourse, "culture" and "cultural relations" have become an important element in the foreign policy of countries. Accordingly, "cultural diplomacy" is considered as a major priorities of foreign policy. The adoption of cultural diplomacy by the two states of Iran and Japan and the pursuit of cultural activities to maintain and develop mutual relations between the two countries under the conditions of Iran's nuclear sanctions indicate the importance of cultural relations at a time when political and economic relations undergo some inadequacies. Two countries of Iran and Japan, through various cultural exchanges under the tough conditions arising from sanctions, have attempted to mitigate the already generated negative space and keep communication channels open so that political and economic ties can be quickly restored to the normal state when the required conditions are met.

The relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia have always been based on tension, political misunderstandings and on some occasions, a kind of limited détente. Presently (early 2019) most researchers employ the term “cold war” to describe the nature of this relationship. This situation has deteriorated after the Syrian crisis (since 2011), and the reign of King Salman and his son, especially with the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House. By using the neoclassical realism theory, the present paper seeks to explain the question of leading causes of Tehran-Riyadh hostility from an Iranian perspective and prospects that can be drawn for it. The findings suggest that the causes of this hostility can be analyzed at the domestic, regional and transnational levels. As long as Riyadh perceives Iran as a threat to its survival, Trump and Mohammed bin Salman remain in power, Riyadh's internal concerns stay in place, and no strategic shift happens from Saudi side (for example, alliance with Russia), the tension in Tehran-Riyadh relations will continue. The method used by the authors in this research is descriptive-analytic, and it is mostly focused on how Tehran interprets the deep reasons for this hostility.

Today, foreign investment is one of the most sophisticated financing sources in the world. Most of the countries are seeking to attract these resources by creating political and legal reforms. Political factors are very influential on the attraction of foreign investment. In early 2001, by adoption of Foreign Investment Protection Act, Iran has been struggling to attract foreign investment in the country. In this regard, Germany was one of the most important partner and target country for Iran. During 1997 to 2017, there were some fluctuation in trend of German investment into Iran, due to various political components.. From 1997 to 2004 when the political tensions were at the lowest level, the German investment in Iran were at the best position. The question raised here is concerned with factor which served as a basis for the political economy of German FDI in Iran. Hypothetically, the fluctuations in trend of German investment in Iran is a sequent of various components including US policy, Middle Eastern peace processes, terrorism and human rights. The method of research is explanatory with referring to statistics and analyzing the trend of German investments in last 20 years. We will consider the influence of political component on the FDI of German companies during the presidency of Khatami,Ahmadinejad and Rouhani especially after the US withdraws from the JCPOA.