Assignment 1 inrenational relation - Term Paper Example

The letter sent to former American president George Bush by the current Iranian president in 2006 clearly shows that the differences existing between America and Iran are not related to the nuclear issue alone. In fact the nuclear issue between America and Iran has not been mentioned in this letter. On the other hand, America’s efforts to baptize the entire world to Christianity, war on terror, foreign policies, stands on Middle East crisis etc are some of the major issues mentioned in the letter.

This paper analyses the above letter and the prospects of diplomatic breakthrough during the Obama administration if Iran's nuclear file is resolved. Iran and America are two extremely diverse nations with respect to politics, culture, economy legal frame works etc. Iran is an Islamic republic and majority of the Iranian population are Muslims whereas America is a secular democratic country, dominated by Christian religion. “The government refers to a particular set of institutions and people authorised by formal documents such as a constitution to pass laws, issue regulations, control the police etc whereas the state includes all the institutions and individuals that exercise power” (Hauss, p.8). .

Like most of the other democratic countries, elections were conducted to select the representatives of Iranian parliament; however the influence of religion and religious leaders in Iranian politics cannot be underestimated or neglected. Even though the president of Iran holds the supreme power in administrative matters, he cannot function against the interests of the religious leaders. In other words, religion holds the supreme power in Iranian politics and social life. Religion does not play any major role in the functioning of democracy in America which is evident from the fact that the current American president Obama not only has a black community origin, but also has a Muslim origin.

In other words, America values people based on their individual merits rather than their pedigree or cultural history. Nobody can anticipate a person from another religion becomes the president of Iran. The influence of religion in politics seems to be a curse for Iranians. Because of the excessive influence of religion in politics, Iran forced to sacrifice many of the fundamental principles of democracy and caused immense damages to their political and economical growth. The influence of religion on politics is visible in the letter sent to Bush by Mahmood Ahmadi-Najad.

In this letter Mr. Najad tries to connect religious beliefs with politics. He has asked Bush to make clear that whether his activities are in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ or not. The following excerpts are taken from the letter. About Israel: Is support for this regime in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ (PBUH) or Moses (PBUH) or liberal values? About massacres against the prisoners: There are prisoners in Guantanamo Bay that have not been tried, have no legal