Scholar Edward Wastnidge seeks to develop a narrative that lays out the major ideological components that shape Iranian foreign policy. His analysis explores how different identity flows manifest in different circumstances, highlighting how and where they intersect. In addition, he proposes a framework based on four key identity markers or visions that stand out from his foreign policy priorities: the ‘Persianised world’, the ‘Shia world’, the umma and the notion of ‘resistance’.

Edward Wastnidge is Senior Lecturer in The Open University’s Department of Politics and International Studies, Associate Director of the Sectarianism, Proxies and Dectarianization (SEPAD) project, based at Lancaster University’s Richardson Institute, and Co-editor of Identities and Geopolitics at Manchester University Press. Some of his recent publications include Saudi Arabia and Iran: the struggle to shape the Middle East (ed. with Simon Mabon, Manchester University Press, 2022), “Iran: political history”, in Christopher Matthews (ed), and The Middle East and North Africa 2022 (Routledge, 2021).

Conference moderated by Olivia Glombitza, Lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Co-organised with the Master’s Degree in International Relations, Security and Development, UAB within the framework of the Aula Mediterrània 2022-23 programme.

This conference takes place in English at the IEMed conference room, Girona, 20 – Barcelona and it can also be followed on IEMed Youtube Channel.

Read Wastnidge’s AulaMed article.