Iran and Turkey ― International and Regional Engagement in the Middle East

The foreign policies of Turkey and Iran seem increasingly to dictate the course of events in the Middle East. Since 1979, with the rise of Iran as an Islamic State and with Turkey's developing secularism, the spotlight has turned to these countries' dynamic re-entry onto the political stage, revealing them as key regional players with an international role in efforts towards stability in the Middle East. This book traces the evolution of Turkish-Iranian relations and their subsequent impact on regional events and policies.

Based on an examination of the countries' political histories since 1979 and using material gathered from interviews with leading political figures from Turkey, Iran and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Marianna Charountaki offers fresh insights into how we understand the contemporary global order. Of particular importance, this book shows, is the interaction between state and non-state actors, a relationship which has so far been neglected by existing theories of International Relations. Redressing this gap in the scholarship, Marianna Charountaki places the case studies of Iran and Turkey in a theoretical framework and pioneers a new conceptual map that shows how the interaction between state and non-state actors impact on foreign policy.

An original account that provides a fresh new perspective, this book will be of particular interest to scholars of International Relations, International Politics, Diplomatic History and Middle East Studies.

Marianna Charountaki is a Lecturer in Kurdish Politics and International Relations in the School of History, Politics and International Relations at the University of Leicester, where she is also the Head of the Kurdistan International Studies Unit. Her research interests range from international relations and foreign policy analysis to the international relations of the broader Middle East. She has published the monograph The Kurds and US Foreign Policy: International Relations in the Middle East since 1945 (2010) as well as articles in the journals Journal of American Foreign Policy Interests, Third World Quarterly and Journal of Arabian Studies.