Samireh Ahmadi

The European Union (EU) is known as the largest economic bloc as well as an influential political actor on the international scene. It has succeeded to display a distinct pattern of regional integration with 28 member states and a population of over 500 million people. Since its establishment in 1950s, EU has been the subject of in-depth and serious political and academic discussions. One of the major questions has been the ability of the EU to be represented either as a super power and a military power or as a civil and non-military power considering the various and somehow contradictory benefits of its member states. The key concept, here, is the idea of the normative power; however, to what extent can the EU be recognized as a normative power? According to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights as well as the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) the European Union is based on a strong commitment to promoting and protecting human rights, democracy and the rule of law worldwide and it lies at the very heart of EU relations with other countries and regions. Thus the main objective of this thesis is to analyze how the normative power of the Union and the instruments used to depict this power challenge its external relations with Iran especially when it comes to consider the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) as a factor of paradigm shift in the Iranian as well the as the EU foreign policy.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was finally concluded on July 14, 2015 between negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 countries (the U.S., U.K. France, Germany, Russia, and China), along with the EU. This achievement highlights the role of diplomacy in resolving international crisis. However, concluding the Agreement, different resonances were heard; some in favor and some severely against the deal.  In this paper, the author tries to clarify the Iranian situation by analyzing the Iranian nuclear diplomacy during different Administrations and to discuss the reactions not only in Iran but also the position held by the international community toward the deal. Doing so, the importance of the decision-making process in the Iranian foreign diplomacy would be highlighted and the reasons for believing in inalterability of the principles of Iranian foreign policy are given. The achievements and consequences of the JCPOA along with the future scenarios of the agreement would be the final section of the paper. Trying to maintain the commitments undertaken by the JCPOA, both parties of the agreement have their mutual interest in fulfilling the objectives of the agreement. However, the future of the deal seems to be blurring due to the nature of the Iranian foreign policy principles, next Presidential elections in Iran as well as the different attitude of the U.S. Administration under Donald Trump presidency.
Key Words: Iranian foreign policy, nuclear diplomacy, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)