Iran’s Look East Policy: Analyzing The Possibility of establishment of Strategic economic Alliance Between the Islamic Republic of Iran and China (1989 2013)

Look east doctrine is an important approach in the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This approach was adapted as a policy priority, following a decade of disruption of diplomatic relationship with the United States of America as well as the intensification of EU sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran.; Adopting this new approach, the IR of Iran has tried to safeguard its economic goals and objectives by abstracting the unipolar structure of the international system formed following the Cold War. China, as a new hegemonic power in the international system, has attracted the attention of Iran’s diplomatic apparatus, in order to strengthen Iran’s national interests in regional and international levels, by expanding the cooperation with this rich and powerful pole in international system. This article analyzes the extent the hegemonic structure of international system allows a coalition-building opportunity for Iranian diplomacy to establish strategic relations with China.; The main question of the paper is to find the objectives of the IR of Iran in extending its strategic relations with China. The study uses an analytic- descriptive method based on the theory of power to test the validity of the hypothesis that the IR of Iran considers China as one of the suitable alternatives in the area economic strategic relationship.;