The role of political socialization on Iranian presidents’ foreign policy making

Abstract

The process of formation and development at different stages of a human life as well as his/her political socialization is effective on the behavior of every individual. Political socialization, shapes the political character of individuals and in the case of presidential stature, seriously affect his/her policy making including the field of foreign policy. The main question in this article is that how the political socialization of the Iranian presidents (Khatami and Ahmadinejhad) affected their decisions in the field of foreign policy? It seems that political socialization through three factors of family, peers, and education and training, has shaped their personality and behavior. In this paper, a descriptive-explorative method and the data collecting from library and Internet is used to prove the hypothesis.