Prosjektnr. 130612/510

Prosjektleder
Nils Jordet

Sammendrag
The 1979-1997 period saw an apparent mismatch between the US policy of containing Iran and Iranian threats to US interests. Despite extreme ideological and hostile rhetoric coming out of Iran, its foreign policy since the death of Ayatollah Khomeni has arguably been predominantly pragmatic, and above all it has been rooted in "realpolitik" dictated by economic, demographic, and legitimate security problems. Yet, two years into the second Clinton Administration, US foreign policy toward Iran was paradoxically more hostile than at any time since the Hostage Crisis. Several analysts argue that the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton Administrations have exaggerated the threats originating from Iran. The mismatch between Iranian threats and US response has not been answered systematically in scholarly literature. There is no comprehensive study tracing the origins and the policy process of US containment of Iran in the period 1979 to 1997.
The contribution of this research to the field of international relations is a single-case study description and theory testing of US containment of Iran. The results will be highly useful for further theory building. It is a historical evaluation of US policy objectives toward Iran and their corresponding outcomes in the period 1979-1997. The project will also contribute to the regional arms race debate, the threat assessment underlying the current theater missile defense debate, and world energy security.

Det er også laget et lengre sammendrag, Jordet-langversjon (doc)

Prosjektperiode: 1/1-1999-31/12-1999