Between the democratisation of international relations and status quo politics: Russia’s foreign policy towards the Iranian nuclear programme

Abstract

This article sheds light on Russia’s foreign policy towards the Iranian nuclear programme and analyses to what extent Russia’s Iran policies are indicative of a security culture that resists hegemony. Following a two-level model between a discursive and a behavioral level of foreign policy, it will be shown how Moscow advocates a non-hegemonic security culture discursively, but still displays a level of behavioural convergence with hegemonic power structures. Process-tracing Russia’s positioning on the Iranian nuclear dossier as from the disclosure of Iran’s nuclear programme in 2002, the article carves out Russian normative conceptions in international relations and material considerations that let Russia partially fall short of acting upon its own discourse. It will be argued that Russian Iran policy is the outcome of a balancing act between resistance to hegemony and hegemonic accommodation.