European Union Intervention in the Iranian Crisis - A Sociological Institutionalist Perspective

The European Union began to be involved in solving the Iranian crisis starting with 2003. While in the past the EU used to react to this type of problems by issuing declarative documents or by silence due to the internal divisions, this time the EU member states were willing to react promptly and united. The paper aims to analyze using the framework offered by sociological institutionalism whether and to what extent the values and norms incorporated in the EU's international identity, as well as processes like social mobilization, learning from other experiences and mobilization of non-state actors have influenced the European Union approach towards the Iranian nuclear crisis.