This paper focuses on the role of interest groups in US foreign policy towards Iran under the George W. Bush and Obama administration. The question to be answered is: Why is the amount of influence of some lobby groups higher than of others? The answer gives a better understanding under what circumstances interest groups fail or succeed. Coming from the liberalist approach of Andrew Moravcsik and Thomas Risse this study analyzes the impact of domestic structures and coalition-building processes between political actors and interest groups as the main source of US foreign policy making. Within the coalition-building processes the political actors and interest groups shape public opinion in order to strengthen their positions. This paper contributes to recent studies analyzing the impact of interest groups. This is a qualitative case study which uses the Andreas Dür’s preference attainment approach to compare the goals of selected interest groups to political outcomes.
