Iran in US foreign policy in the 2000s

The first official development in US foreign policy in relations with Iran was The "Treaty of Friendship and Commerce" that was signed in 1856. However, the diplomatic relations that started with this agreement with Iran did not show continuity due to the isolationist policies adopted by the USA at that time, and the USA's Iran policy began to develop only in the 1950s, when the USA began to become more involved in Middle East politics. As world oil production shifted to the Persian Gulf in the 1950s, interest in Iran increased in US foreign policy. The military coup against the then Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 was a turning point in the relations between the two countries, and until the regime change in 1979 with the Shah Reza Pahlavi administration after Mossadegh, Iran became one of the allies of the USA with whom it had good relations in the Middle East. The Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 caused the relations between the two countries to become tense and diplomatic relations to be suspended. Although official relations were cut off after 1979, Iran has been one of the countries of particular importance in the foreign policies of US presidents since then. In the 2000s, US presidents shaped their foreign policies towards Iran depending on a number of factors such as the Iranian nuclear program, regional security issues, human rights issues, diplomatic initiatives and international policy dynamics. For example, while George W. Bush declared Iran as the "Axis of Evil" within the framework of the "Preventive War Doctrine" and adopted a harsh attitude towards Iran, Barack Obama, who attaches importance to diplomacy and negotiation, pursued a moderate policy towards Iran with his "change" discourse. After Obama, while Donald Trump adopted a harsh policy like George W. Bush in relations with Iran; Joe Biden, like Obama, has adopted the rhetoric of diplomacy and negotiation. In this context, the study aims to reveal whether the Iran policies followed by the US administrations in the 2000s changed depending on the Presidents and which issues were effective in determining the Iran policies of the US administrations.