Crisis Studies of the Islamic World

Crisis Studies of the Islamic World

Turkey’s Strategic Intentions and Their Strategic Implications for the Islamic Republic of Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
1 Associate Professor of Political Science at Ayatollah Boroujerdi University / Boroujerd, Iran
2 Postdoctoral Researcher at Ayatollah Boroujerdi University
Abstract
Over the past decade, Turkey’s foreign policy has undergone a strategic transformation within the framework of the “Century of Türkiye” vision, aiming to redefine its role in the regional power geometry and reposition itself in the global order. This shift is grounded in national capacity reengineering, expanded peripheral influence, and enhanced multilateral engagement. Turkey’s strategic intentions are pursued through four key pillars: institutionalizing foreign relations, reconfiguring regional security arrangements, generating geopolitical welfare, and global meaning-making. The central question of this study is: how have these strategic intentions affected the regional positioning and agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran in West Asia? The hypothesis posits that Turkey’s evolving foreign policy—anchored in multilateral institution-building and human-centered diplomacy—has shifted its competition with Iran from geopolitical confrontation to symbolic, structural, and normative domains, necessitating a redefinition of Iran’s regional role. Employing an analytical-comparative approach, the study reveals that bilateral competition now unfolds within emerging regional interactions and power-narrative reconstruction. Consequently, Iran has been compelled to adopt adaptive, balancing, and reconfigurative strategies, traceable across security, institutional, and soft-power dimensions. This trajectory underscores the need to reassess power dynamics through multi-level interactions and to rethink contemporary instruments of regional agency.
Keywords


Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 30 May 2026

  • Receive Date 22 July 2025
  • Revise Date 25 September 2025
  • Accept Date 25 February 2026