Economic development can be considered as the main and ultimate goal of different countries. The importance of this category is so much that different countries are trying to achieve development by using different strategies as well as the tools they have. The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the countries that put economic development as one of its important priorities after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In this regard, the main question of this article is, what effect has the structure of the international system had on the development process in Iran? This hypothesis has been proposed that the structure of the international system is the basis for Iran's movement towards endogenous development based on the approach of internal priorities in development and progress, and in which attention is paid to the knowledge-based economy, reducing dependence on oil revenues, as well as cohesion and consensus. Elites at different levels of society are considered. The results of the article show that after the Cold War, the Islamic Republic of Iran showed a confrontational approach with the international system. As a result of this, various sanctions were formed by America, Europe and various international organizations, which weakened the economic development process in the country. In order to deal with these sanctions, the Islamic Republic of Iran put endogenous development on its agenda. The type of research method is descriptive-analytical and based on library studies.