Iran’s Missile and Conventional Military Cooperation with China under Hashemi (1989-1997)

The preset paper aims to provide a brief overview of the development of the Sino-Iranian military cooperation during the Hashemi administration in the years between 1989 and 1997. It tries to shed light on China’s position in Iran’s post-war military modernization while taking a look at the role of the United States as the most important external factor affecting Iranian foreign policy and relations with the outside world. The paper deals with this question that how and under what conditions Tehran has sought Chinese assistance to build up its military might in the Post-Cold War era. By adopting a process-tracing methodology, the study will attempt to show that Iran and China have attempted to maintain cooperation in military and defense fields all through the first decade following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The research will also argue that although U.S isolationist strategy against Iran negatively influenced the Sino-Iranian relationship, it failed to freeze military cooperation between the two countries. As a result, during the critical years of Hashemi's presidency, while trying to go ahead with its reconstruction plan, Tehran successfully used Beijing's help to establish its own indigenous defense industry; a policy that was pursued by successive Iranian administrations in the post-Cold War period.