The transatlantic dialogue on Iran : the European subaltern and hegemonic constraints in the implementation of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran

Pieper, MA

Abstract

This article analyses the US-EU transatlantic dialogue on the Iranian nuclear dossier with a particular view to implications for European Union (EU) foreign policy on Iran. Doing so, it uses neo-Gramscian scholarship to put the EU’s ‘over-compliance’ with Iran sanctions into perspective. Constrained by the imperatives of hegemonic coercion in the form of US financial Iran sanctions against third country entities and with the hegemonic consent of a Western US-led 'historic bloc', Europe was relegated to a subaltern below its mediatory potential. It will be shown how this finding complicates the EU’s ambition to renew relations with Iran. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with experts and delegation members from the P5+1, this article thus analyses ‘the normative element’ in the transatlantic security dialogue on Iran at a time where the latter is undergoing a sea change in the wake of the implementation of the ‘Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action’ of July 2015.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 21, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Oct 12, 2016
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 12, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 12, 2018
• Journal: European Security
• Print ISSN: 0966-2839
• Electronic ISSN: 1746-1545
• Publisher: Routledge
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 99-119
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2016.1240676
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2016.1240676