Religion as a factor in foreign policy: Iran's revolution export policy and the Shia Crescent discourse

Certain events which have taken place beginning from the second half of the 20th century have made the religion visible in the field of international relations. Especially, the terrorist attacks which took place in the USA on September 11, 2001 have turned our eyes to the phenomenon of religion in the analysis of international relations and foreign policy. As a matter of fact, interaction of religion and foreign policy has a very long and deep-rooted history. When this historical process is examined, it is seen that religion has been used as an effective tool in fulfilling interests. This role of religion in international relations and foreign policy has also been confirmed by realism in international relations theories. Some researches conducted in this aspect have revealed that religion plays a role both as an element of power and as a legitimating tool in the approach of states to regional and international issues. These days, the Islamic Republic of Iran which is a theocratic state is trying to use the mentioned features of religion in the most effective way. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been in a struggle for increasing its effectiveness in the Middle East since its establishment. The first foreign policy implementation put forward to achieve this goal was the policy of exporting the revolutions. At this point, it is seen that Iran, which aims to establish regimes correspond to its own government in the Middle East with its policy of exporting the revolutions, clearly failed. As a consequence, the policy of revolution export, which was put aside in the 1990's, was reinterpreted with a sectarian oriented approach and came up again in 2004 under the name of "Shia Crescent Discourse''. Although the Shia Crescent discourse seems to be a sectarian-based approach, it is clear that this discourse is a part of Iran's search for effectiveness in the Middle East.