Iran and the New Iraq: Security Challenges and Foreign Powers

The two major functions of each country’s foreign policy are establishing security and creating opportunities in the foreign arena. Assessing the extent of the success of a foreign policy is very much dependent upon the degree of the simultaneity and feasibility of the two aforementioned elements. Indisputably, the new Iraq is the most important ground where Iran’s foreign policy in terms of the above two functions can be put to test. Understanding the roots of Iran’s foreign policy in the new Iraq becomes important since the developments of the last two years in this country transgress the boundaries of bilateral relations and thence affect Iran’s interests both regionally and internationally.