Heather Robinson
Email: hmr4@st-andrews.ac.uk
LinkedIn:linkedin.com/pub/heather-robinson/b/150/718
Twitter: twitter.com/heathercloudrob
Thesis Title: Iran's Influence in Afghanistan from 1975 to the Present
Supervisor: Professor Ali M. Ansari
Prior to coming to St Andrews in 2011 to study for the MLitt in Iranian Studies, I worked for two years in Washington, D.C. as Special Assistant to the Afghan Ambassador to the United States at the Embassy of Afghanistan, and served as an Editorial and Production Associate for the realist international affairs journal The National Interest. I received my BA in Political Science from Columbia University in New York, with a concentration on American foreign policy in the Middle East. My BA thesis was on the U.S. media's perception of Iran's role as a state sponsor of terrorism. My MLitt thesis was on the changing role of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in dictating Iran's foreign policy toward the United States.
My PhD work seeks to bridge my academic and professional experiences by examining a significant but little researched aspect of Iran's history and foreign policy - namely, its relationship with Afghanistan and Iran's increasing political, military, economic, cultural and influence in Afghanistan from the beginning of the Islamic Republic to the present. The thesis will analyse Iran's influence within the wider context of their regional ambitions and changing relationship with the United States as the U.S. expanded its presence in the region from the 1970s onwards. The time period that will be examined will include pre- and post-revolutionary Iran and pre- and post-Soviet Afghanistan by contrasting Iran's Afghan policies during the late Pahlavi era with those of the Islamic Republic. The hope is to demonstrate that Afghanistan has become a battleground for Iran’s persistent ambitions for regional hegemony in competition with the United States' attempts to gain regional control. Iran’s influence in Afghanistan is a key example of how Iran employs a reactionary foreign policy when threatened, attempting to exert regional dominance through political pressure and diplomacy, economic investment and trade, and, most recently, support for destabilising, counter-government organisations.