To what extent has been continuity and change in the revolutionary Iran foreign policy since 1979? This question is examining the Iranian foreign policy over the last twenty-seven-year by using two major theories in the fields of International relations and comparative foreign policy explanations. While the systemic theory, represented by neorealism theory in this research, argues that international system drives states foreign policies, domestic and statist explanations argue that domestic political factors play major role in driving and shaping states foreign behaviors. My research will use these different approaches to study the Islamic Republic foreign policy under different leaderships – Khomeini, Rafsanjani, Khatami, and Ahmadinejad – since its establishment in February 1979.

Since this research is using different international variables – the Iran-Iraq War (1980 – 1988), oil prices, and the existences of the United States armed forces in the Middle East, as well as different domestic and Statist political variables – leaders' orientations, decision structure, domestic political oppositions, and interest groups – to examine the Iranian foreign policy throughout the last twenty-seven-year, I depend on previous scholarly works that have written by different scholars, including Iranians scholars, who study the Iranian foreign policy from different perspectives since the revolution.

Applying the foreign policy model that combines different international variables and different domestic and statist political factors to examine the outcome of the Islamic Republic foreign policy gives us good explanations to the Iranian foreign policy from 1979 to 2006. While both approaches – systemic theory and domestic and statist explanations can explain the Islamic Republic foreign policy over the last twenty-seven-year and under different leaderships, domestic and statist approaches can bring more explanations and justifications for different foreign polices and behaviors at the time that systemic approach cannot explain and justify. However, at the time domestic and statist approaches bring more and valid explanations for the Islamic Republic foreign polices; that does not mean systemic approach is not important to look to.

In short, studying the Islamic Republic foreign policy needs to look to different international and domestic and statist political factors because it is a very complicated case since many political factors can affect the Iranian behaviors from different sides domestically and internationally. Therefore, it is very important for the world not to simplify Iran.