DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE MODERATE GOVERNMENT'S FOREIGN POLICY IN IRAN

Hassan Rouhani, sponsoring a discourse of moderation to help win the presidential election of Iran in 2013, may represent the signification system governing such a hegemonic discourse. This study attempts to evaluate the moderate government's foreign policy by making use of Laclau and Mouffe's discourse analysis method to gain a deeper insight into the way the signifiers are articulated alongside each other, the way the signifiers are defined and redefined by a nodal point, the way they are made coherent around a superior signifier, and the way antagonistic delimitations are created for the purpose of the hegemonic overcoming over other discourses existing within this area and, finally, the availability and credibility evaluation methods are applied. An analysis of the foreign policy of the country's eleventh government indicates that such a discourse constructively interacts with the nodal point and has succeeded in preserving its hegemonic position by enjoying a more coherent political subjectivity and its application of exclusion and marginalisation processes as well as via its foregrounding competencies and even stronger availability and acquiring greater credibility with respect to other competitive discourses.