Iran's Role in Eurasian Energy Transit Corridors and Its Impact on the Country's Geopolitical Power 1

Iran's unique geopolitical and geoeconomic position in Eurasia has placed the country at the center of global transit routes; as it is located in the "center of the energy strategy oval" between three major consumer hubs, namely the European Union, China, and India. This pivotal position strengthens Iran's potential to become a "logistics highway of Eurasia" in projects such as the International North-South Corridor (INSTC) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The main question of this article is how is Iran's role in Eurasian energy transit corridors defined and what impact does this role have on strengthening the country's geopolitical power? And in response, the main hypothesis is that as Iran’s participation and role in the Eurasian energy transit corridors increases, the country’s geopolitical power and regional and international bargaining power will also increase. The purpose of this article is to examine Iran’s role in the Eurasian energy transit and analyze its impact on the country’s geopolitical power using the theoretical framework of the “Copenhagen School”. The findings show that connecting the economic interests and energy security of consumer countries to Iran’s national security increases the country’s national security coefficient. However, challenges such as international sanctions, weak domestic infrastructure, and the emergence of competing corridors such as the Zangezur Corridor and the IMEC Corridor pose a serious threat to Iran’s comparative advantages and focal role. Adopting an “interactive geoeconomic” approach and active transit diplomacy are essential to revive Iran’s geoenergy capacities and confront these threats.