نشریه علوم سیاسی
سال یازدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 41، بهار 1387)

Communitarianism as an intellectual trend influential on the contemporary political thought is not a completely anti-liberalist school. Although some of its main figures such as McIntire are in general against the liberalist tradition, most of the intellectuals in this school are classified as liberalists. In fact, they are against individualistic understandings of liberalism which ignore the role of society in the formation of basic concepts and ideas in political societies. Contemporary communitarianism is hermeneutic approach which emphasizes on the role of conceptions and interpretations formed in society and tries to recognize such conceptions in theorizing on justice and other political subjects. This hermeneutic approach faces a number of shortcomings and problems which are to be discussed in this paper.

This paper is a study of “democratic peace theory” from the viewpoint of “religious democracy.” Kant, the outstanding German philosopher, introduced “democratic peace theory” to political sciences in the 18th century. Afterwards, the Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter, underpinned the theory from an economic perspective. After the development of secular liberal democracy in the second half of 20th century, more attention was paid to the relationship between peace and democracy. At this stage, many political science researchers strengthened the “democratic peace theory”, using various statistical research methods. The strong reading of this theory, which has few supporters, claims that democratic countries have always peaceful foreign relationships. However, the weak reading maintains that democratic countries tend to resolve disagreements peacefully only in the relationships among themselves. The reading also concedes that these countries, in their relationships with non-democratic countries, have no differences with non-democratic countries concerning peacefulness. After a critical evaluation of “democratic peace theory”, the paper proposes the principle that the establishment of mutual equal respect culture among governments is a key factor in the establishment of world peace, whether these governments be secular democracies or religious democracies. Thus, the only way for developing world peace is that the West renounce the common idea that secular Western culture has priority over other cultures. This conception by West governments practically leads to the denial of the mutual equal respect principle in regulating the relationships among the West and the non-West. This the main obstacle to develop world peace.

In the terminology of international relations, culture is considered as soft power because soft power is the ability to form the preferences and manufacture consent which is different from hard (military, armament) power exploited with violence. The international relations arena has recently been influenced by cultural and identity matters. Thus, one of the implicit but important diplomacy goals of the world countries in the realm of international politics is attaining an international prestige and changing public opinion through soft power. This might be pursued differently through different mechanisms and strategies according to the status, situation, facilities, opportunities, and cultural capacity of countries. In addition, attaining and maintaining power in the new world follows from a different pattern, with respect to the past, and introduced new variables for producing and exerting power and analyzing problems in international relations. Thus, the present paper is to study the status and role of cultural power in international relations and its impact on world developments specifically after September11.

After referring to the four common characteristics of terrorist acts (i.e. violence, tenseness, and intimidation, illegitimate goals, and oppressive, secret, surprise acts), the legitimacy and illegitimacy of such acts is evaluated from a jurisprudential viewpoint. Moharibah (war), Fatk (raid), Ghadr (deception) and Baghy (rebellion) are subjects in jurisprudence which deal with terrorism. Elaborating on the jurisprudential verdicts on terrorist acts against Muslims and infidels, the paper tries to answer the question whether terrorism with religious goals, of which the West is now accusing the Islamic sects and denominations, is considered as legitimate in jurisprudence or not. Then, in answer to the widespread Western propaganda to show Islam as terrorist because of allowing martyrdom-seeking operations, the paper studies the jurisprudential foundations and arguments for allowing martyrdom seeking operations and its differences with suicide operations.

Iran and the US have always had antagonistic challenging relationships after the 1979 Islamic revolution. These relationships entered a new phase after the cold war and especially during the last decade which coincides with the unilateralist era in the United States’ policies. With respect to the elimination of the main rival of the United States from the world scene, it seemed probable that the measures taken by the United States in the Middle East stabilize the American hegemony over the region and marginalize regional powers such as Iran. However, the course of developments show that this type of approach to the Middle East not only did not result in the marginalization of Iran but also led to the strengthening and spreading of the Iran’s impact on the region. This paper is to show how the United States’ unilateralism and all-out pressure on the Middle East countries had such consequences.

The appearance of the Islamic Middle East draws different coordinates for the region. In such a situation, a complete tendency will form towards Islam to form and run societies and to realize justice, dignity, and freedom in human societies in the region. The Islamic Middle East will not only challenge despotic and radical governments in the region but also neutralize the controlled Western type of democracy through preparing the grounds for the formation of independent Islamist governments. It will also unmask the true character of the United States government as an authoritarian occupier who pillage the area through turning the region into an army barracks. In this new formation, the fake Israeli regime cannot exist and be recognized by the local governments. On the other hand, the Great Middle East Plan pursues the foreign policy goals of the United States in the region and is to preemptively confront any asymmetric threats against the interests of the United States in the region on the basis of a liberalist approach. After 9/11 American policy makers proposed the Great Middle East Plan an their long-term strategy in the region. Understanding the nature and complexity of this plan has been the major concern of the most Middle East experts. The present paper studies the nature and the goals behind this plan and analyzed the way it is to be put into operation in the region. We believe that the Great Middle East Plan is in opposition with the Islamic Middle East. The United States made much effort to contain the Islamic Middle East, resorting to two software and hardware strategies to be studied in this paper.

Covering a vast area of the earth, the Islamic world with a population of more than one billion is an important population, cultural, economic, and political pole. Though it has much capacity for convergence, it now suffers from divergence. From geopolitical viewpoint, most Islamic countries are in the beginning stage of organizing the political sphere. Population is rapidly increasing in these countries. Increase in population has various aftermaths one of which is the destruction of environment. There are also geopolitical problems in the Islamic world. The Islamic countries in the Middle East and North Africa suffer from the natural and geographical problem of lack of water. This has led to conflicts among countries with water sources and made water a geopolitical issue. On the other hand, the Islamic world has grounds from convergence. The biggest source of energy belongs to the Islamic world. Since the hydrocarbonic sources of energy are decreasing in other regions, Persian Gulf will remain significant for the world economy because of its huge sources of energy in the future 25 years. Thus feature is enough to give the region a geopolitical importance. Although water in the Middle East and North Africa turned into a geopolitical issue, the existence of considerable water resources in some of these countries can reduce the amount of the problem, changing water from a geopolitical issue to a political one. The paper tries to clarify the causes of divergence and the grounds of convergence in the Islamic world.

An overview of the works devoted to study of al-Qaeda shows that each approached the organization from a specific perspective. Here, there are three types of assumptions which are more noteworthy. According to the first one, the al-Qaeda ideology and the actions done by this organization are indicative of Huntington’s theory of Civilization Clashes. The second group consider al-Qaeda a modern phenomenon and believe that it is more influenced by European leftist thoughts than by Islamic teachings. The last group have a religious approach to the organization and evaluated the ideology under the rubric of ‘religious terrorism.’ This paper elaborates on the last group.