Different Iranian and international researchers have studied the foreign policy of Islamic Republic of Iran, using theories of foreign policy and international relations. The most important challenge facing all this studies, has been analyze and explain the contradictory aspects of Iran's foreign policy. This study proposes  a new framework for analyzing the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran and argues that this framework can explain Iran's foreign policy contradictions and differences . The authors argue that using the Critical Realism as a new conceptual framework in international relations is a better way of understanding the different aspects in Iran foreign policy. Critical Realism stands between Realism and Critical theory in international relations and while has some common points with them, has also some different with each of them.
This article has two main parts: The first part is to explain the concept of Critical Realism and its position in international relations theory deals. The second part examines the appropriateness and matching theory to explain the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.