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

This thesis examines the impact of Iranian elites’ conceptions of national identity on decisions affecting Iran's nuclear programme and the P5+1 nuclear negotiations. “Why has the development of an indigenous nuclear fuel cycle been portrayed as a unifying symbol of national identity in Iran, especially since 2002 following the revelation of clandestine nuclear activities”? This is the key research question that explores the Iranian political elites’ perspectives on nuclear policy actions. My main empirical data is elite interviews. Another valuable source of empirical data is a discourse analysis of Iranian leaders’ statements on various aspects of the nuclear programme. The major focus of the thesis is how the discourses of Iranian national identity have been influential in nuclear decision-making among the national elites. In this thesis, I examine Iranian national identity components, including Persian nationalism, Shia Islamic identity, Islamic Revolutionary ideology, and modernity and technological advancement. Traditional rationalist IR approaches, such as realism fail to explain how effective national identity is in the context of foreign policy decision-making. I thus discuss the connection between national identity, prestige and bargaining leverage using a social constructivist approach. According to constructivism, states’ cultures and identities are not established realities, but the outcomes of historical and social processes. The Iranian nuclear programme has a symbolic nature that mingles with socially constructed values.
There is the need to look at Iran’s nuclear intentions not necessarily through the lens of a nuclear weapons programme, but rather through the regime’s overall nuclear aspirations. The Iranian government, military, and people broadly support the peaceful nuclear programme. However, neither the officials nor the people advocate acquiring a nuclear weapon capability, as they say, it is against Islamic rules. Iranian officials always support their claim of having a peaceful nuclear programme by a fatwā issued on 3 June 2008, by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei forbidding the development and use of nuclear weapons. The domestic reality about Iran’s nuclear programme is that the nuclear case is a national issue and thus, all political factions, parties, groups, and politicians with different perspectives agree on Iran’s right to a peaceful nuclear programme and a nuclear fuel cycle.