Ideology and Pragmatism: A Discursive Constructivist Interpretation of US-Iran Relations under Rouhani

Abstract

This study analyses the role of ideology and pragmatism in shaping foreign policy of Iran towards the United States during Rouhani presidency (2013–2021). In post-revolutionary context, foreign policy of Iran is usually understood through a dichotomous lens that distinguishes ideological commitments from pragmatic actions purely based on national interests. This study advances an alternative interpretation by employing qualitative research methods through the theoretical lens of discursive constructivism. Drawing on official speeches, interviews, and state documents, it argues that Iran’s foreign policy cannot be adequately understood either through conventional realist frameworks or through approaches that rely solely on ideational explanations. The findings establish that ideology and pragmatism function in a mutually constitutive mode, allowing Iran to engage in selective cooperation with the United States while simultaneously adhering to its revolutionary ideology. This study shows that how in the Rouhani era (2013-21), negotiations with the United States, crystallized in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and were narratively produced as both strategically indispensable and ideologically permissible, enabling a temporary reconfiguration of the boundaries of acceptable foreign policy in Iran.

Keywords: The Iran Nuclear Deal, Iran’s Foreign Policy, Iran-US Relations, The Internal Politics of Iran, Iranian Reformists