Saeed Nariman argues that the key prerequisite for the success of Iran’s “Look East” policy is rebuilding domestic decision-making capacity. Although Iran and China have increasingly converging strategic interests, internal institutional and cognitive barriers have prevented these shared interests from developing into a sustainable strategic partnership.
Crisis of Agency
The main obstacle is a crisis of agency. A strategic shift toward the East requires capable institutions and policymakers to design, coordinate, and implement changes across foreign policy, economic governance, banking, security, and economic diplomacy. It cannot be achieved merely through diplomatic realignment.
Cognitive Imbalance
A second obstacle is the cognitive imbalance between Iran and China. Both sides still lack sufficiently direct, deep, and up-to-date knowledge of one another. Much of their understanding is mediated through Western academic, media, and intellectual narratives, while Iran’s image in China is also partly shaped by narratives from the Persian Gulf states. This indirect knowledge can produce incomplete or distorted perceptions.
The West-Oriented Inertia of the Bureaucracy
The third obstacle is the historical Western orientation of Iran’s bureaucracy. Since the era of Abbas Mirza, development has largely been understood through the question of why the West advanced while Iran fell behind. This has created an institutional tendency to define development through Western models, while overlooking opportunities emerging in the East.
Final Emphasis: The Need to Overcome Domestic Barriers
The three obstacles show that the main problem in Iran–China relations is not a lack of shared interests. The two countries have significant common interests in energy security, transit corridors, economic cooperation, and the evolving international order. The central challenge is Iran’s limited domestic capacity to transform these overlapping interests into a stable strategic partnership.
This study is conducted by Saeed Narimani in 2026.
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