Representation, Recognition and Respect in World Politics. 
The Case of US-Iran Relations, written by Constance Duncombe
Book Review
Author: Tamás Peragovics
In: Representation, Recognition and Respect in World Politics. The Case of US-Iran Relations, written by Constance Duncombe, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy (published online ahead of print 2023).
Constance Duncombe, Representation, Recognition and Respect in World Politics. The Case of US-Iran Relations
Manchester University Press, 2019.
Pp. xii+236. £85.00 (Hardcover).
ISBN: 978-1-5261-2491-3.
This book is an insightful exploration of Iran-US relations in the context of Iran’s nuclear programme. Using an innovative framework developed around the nexus of recognition/representation and foreign policy identity, its core argument is that states’ drive to be recognised in terms of their own self-understandings by other states helps explain shifts and changes in foreign policy. To illustrate this drive, the author discusses the ‘struggle for recognition’ generated between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s nuclear programme, and the ways in which the two actors endeavoured to have their own self-representations accepted (recognised) by the other. The resulting analysis is empirically rich and conceptually convincing.
