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CENTRAL ASIA AND THE CAUCASUS
Volume 15 Issue 4 2014
RELIGION, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY
PRAGMATIC POLITICS:
IRAN, CENTRAL ASIA AND
CULTURAL FOREIGN POLICY
Dr Edward WASTNIDGE
Lecturer in Politics and International Studies,
Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS),
Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University
(Milton Keynes, U.K.)
A B S T R A C T
S
ince the break-up of the Soviet Union in
1991, Central Asia assumed renewed
importance in Iranian foreign policy.
The region has played a significant role in
Iran’s historical geography, and Persian cul-
tural influence continues to felt in the region
today. Iran has sought to present itself as a
“status-quo” power in its bilateral and multi-
lateral approaches to Central Asia, some-
thing that is in marked contrast to the revo-
lutionary rhetoric highlighted in Western
media analyses of its foreign policy. This
paper focuses on how Iran has made use of
its historical cultural weight in the region to
further its influence, something that is evi-
dent in its increasing activity in fellow Per-
sian-speaking nations of Tajikistan and Af-
ghanistan. As such, the paper will demon-
strate how Iran has sought to present a
pragmatic face to the region, one that draws
on its own cultural levers as a way of ex-
panding its influence.
KEYWORDS: Iran, foreign policy, culture, Central Asia.
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