Identity and Legitimacy: Iran's Nuclear Ambitions From Non-Traditional Perspectives

This thesis examines the role of national identity in Iranian leaders’ dream to pursue nuclear ambitions and show the world that identity plays a very outstanding role in society’s thoughts. The Iranian national identity components, including the Persian nationality, Shia Islam, Islamic Revolutionary ideology, and modernity and technological advancement showed to be of central importance in policy-making and decision-making.
Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran has always had very effective policies in the Middle East and also in the world. Iran is of paramount importance not only in terms of economy and security but also in terms of cultural identity; in other words, the country’s security is not just limited to security and military issues, but the economic, the societal, the environmental, the political, and the cultural domains, which are causes and effects of security, can affect it. In current decades, Iran’s nuclear programme has been very challenging. Accordingly, in order to have a further understanding of policy-making and managing nuclear ambitions in Iran, one needs to concentrate more on the non-traditional approaches towards security.