| Summary: | <p>This study provides an in-depth analysis of Iran’s foreign policy in the South Caucasus after the collages of the Soviet Union. Using a non-foundationalist theoretical framework, it offers a new perspective towards the issue, deviating from the popular argument of considering Iran’s behaviour in the region pragmatic. Here, Iran's agency as a foreign policy actor is assumed to be decentred. It is continuously produced by various competing and intertwined discursive and recognitive practices. Based on this ontological premise, new conceptualizations of identity, interests, and policies are introduced that allow looking into different aspects of Iran's behaviour in the aforementioned region.</p>
<p>The research investigates Iran’s policies in the South Caucasus during the presidencies of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-1997), Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005), and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-213) as its main case studies, and each of them is discussed in corresponding three empirical chapters. The latter are based on a discourse analysis of extensive textual data from the respective periods. The result is a more complicated image that shows how dualities, hesitance, status anxiety, and routinized practices are an integral part of Iran's policies in the South Caucasus. In this way, the study puts forward a different understanding of the issue and tries to move beyond the ideology vs. pragmatism debate in the literature on Iranian foreign affairs.</p>
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