TY - JOUR ID - 140528 TI - Iranian Exceptionalism and Iran-US Relations: From 1979 to 2021 JO - Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs JA - IRFA LA - en SN - 20088221 AU - Moshirzadeh, Homeira AU - Nazifpour, Ali AD - Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. AD - MA, International Relations, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Y1 - 2020 PY - 2020 VL - 11 IS - 32 SP - 333 EP - 357 KW - US-Iran Relations KW - Exceptionalism KW - Discourse Analysis KW - reconciliation discourse KW - and resistance discourse DO - N2 - Iranian exceptionalism has been a major factor in preventing rapprochement between the US and Iran. There are two major factions within the foreign policy establishment of the Islamic Republic representing “reconciliation discourse” and “resistance discourse”. These two can be seen as sub-discourses within the Islamic Revolution discourse engaged in a struggle over its “correct” interpretation. The “reconciliation discourse” seeks development as the main goal of Iran’s foreign policy, and, hence, considers reconciliation with the US to be a precondition to that goal. Its arguments imply that Iran is not an exceptional country. The resistance discourse, on the other hand, is deeply exceptionalist and deems resistance against the US and maximalist independence to be the main objectives of Iran’s foreign policy. This discourse strongly opposes mending ties with the US because such a move would be understood as a threat to Iran’s exceptionalism.  UR - https://irfajournal.csr.ir/article_140528.html L1 - https://irfajournal.csr.ir/article_140528_6837a49a9404114a319dbd2dd9996ce8.pdf ER -