Questioning the Domestic-Foreign Binary in the Context of the Israel-Iran War

Cuestionamientos al binario interior-exterior en el contexto de la guerra entre Israel e Irán

Typically, global geopolitics is understood to rest upon antipathies between states or other political units, such as empires, based on competing expansionist motivations for resources and/or territory. Little or nothing is said about how motives for conflict are often grounded in the histories and domestic politics of the states or empires involved. This essay questions the domestic-foreign binary and argues that students of interstate conflicts should pay close attention to the domestic politics of the “sides” using the recent hostility between Israel and Iran as the example. In this case, the history of Iran’s long subjection to foreign interventions and its ethnic and religious specificities color the relations it has with the outside world in general and Israel more specifically. For its part, the domestic situation facing Israel’s current government has likewise affected its response to Iran’s putative attempts at processing uranium by stimulating open hostilities. The conflict cannot be adequately understood without close analysis of the home-politics of the parties themselves. This applies equally to other extant or potential conflicts such as, respectively, Russia and Ukraine and the USA and China.