Controversial Actor of the International System: Iran

The three works examined here deal with Iran’s interaction with the international system from a historical perspective and across many dimensions. While the structural and cyclical problems and opportunities between Iran and the international system are conveyed to the reader, analytical and theoretical dimensions are not ignored. However, the three works, due to their publication time, do not include recent developments that have turned the world system upside down ‒the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the rise of China seem to have opened the door to a multi-polar world. The effects of new developments such as advances in technology, digital diplomacy, and the Metaverse on the international system are still at the level of speculation, and Iran will take steps to adapt to this new reality. The emerging, multi-polar world will also increase Iran’s maneuverability. The new international order will open up the normative sources of Iran’s foreign policy; its structure, which is determined by factional dynamics; and its geopolitical imaginations to the discussion. There is a huge gap in the literature in this regard, and new studies are needed to fill it.