Background and Objectives: To effectively internationalise International Relations (IR) is important due to the discipline’s transnational essence. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that, within Iranian universities, the process of internationalisation has often proceeded in a symbolic manner rather than substantive realisation. The central question aims to establish how manifestations of symbolic internationalisation emerge within the IR discipline in Iran and to identify the mechanisms underlying the issue. Utilising internationalisation theories of higher education, I develop an institutional–epistemic model of symbolic compliance in Iranian higher education which demonstrates how the legitimacy requirements imposed by the global scientific system, in interaction with domestic institutional constraints, contribute to the reproduction the said modus-operandi.

Methodology: This study adopts a qualitative–descriptive approach, derived from the synthesis of the theories of the higher education internationalisation across three domains: institutionalism, the sociology of science, and the literature on symbolic internationalisation. Research data were collected via combining theoretical literature and document analysis, subsequently analyzed to formulate an institutional–epistemic model of symbolic compliance in the internationalisation of the discipline of IR in Iran.

Results: The Internationalisation of IR in Iran manifests predominantly in formalistic forms at both ‘automatic’ and ‘deliberate’ levels. This is mainly embodied in deficiencies in the proper integration of English into teaching and research, weaknesses in establishing internship programmes, restrictions on student admission, dominance of normative and non-quantitative content, and the politically sensitive nature of research within Iran’s domestic context.

Conclusion: These factors collectively cause the internationalisation of IR in Iran to function less as a genuine enhancement of scientific and epistemic capacities and more as a symbolic adaptation to the expectations of the global scientific system which reduces the internationalisation process, in the short and medium term, to a largely formalistic and limited undertaking. At the same time, it provides an analytical basis for future research to examine the long-term consequences of this condition and the possible pathways to circumvent it.