نشریه مطالعات خاورمیانه
سال دهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 36، زمستان 1382)

Political, economic and military relations between Iran and Russia, despite certain problems and in spite of US pressures, have expanded significantly within the recent years. The causes and effects of such enlargement of relations have persistently gained the attention of experts on regional issues. Reviewing the factors influencing Iranian foreign policy, the author considers the expansion of Tehran-Moscow ties in economic and military areas in particular the Bushehr nuclear facilities and suggests that the increased cooperation arises from the change in the viewpoints of the policy-makers on both sides during the past decade. From this perspective, relations between the two countries seem to be expanding continuously, though there exists such important and widespread problems such as disagreement between Iran and Russia over the legal regime of the Caspian Sea.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the new independent countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus experienced server economic hardships. This is the subject of study in this article so that it examines the effects of the process of economic globalization on the relations between Iran and the regional countries and consequently on Iran’s national interests. Proposing two prospects and explaining each of them, the author seeks to demonstrate that Iran’s investment in the region will promote Iran’s national interests, due to the economic weakness of the Central Asian and Caucasian countries and their inability to cope with the globalization process. Iran enjoys a unique position in geopolitical and geoeconoimc terms. By paying attention to this region, Iran can ultimately promote its status in the international system, though it is subject to the careful recognition of regional and transregional actors and the adoption of appropriate measures.

Diplomatic relations between Iran and the Soviet Union experienced an enormous transformation and enlargement since the late 1980s, whereas Iranians did not enjoy an affirmative view toward the Soviet Union based on their historical experience and cultural outlook. The important point here is that the change in Iran’s foreign policy was not directly related to the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union. The author studies the factors influencing this shift in Iran’s foreign policy toward the Soviet Union and maintains that Iran is inherently an international country, so to secure its national interests demands close ties with the major foreign powers. Given their anti-American ideology and their perception of major powers and the Cold War issue, the Iranian political elites had no other option but to expand their relations with the Soviet Union as one of the two superpowers, especially since Gorbachev’s reforms caused the decrease in Iranians’ historical anxiety about their northern neighbor.

This article seeks to explore Israel’s nuclear capability and analyze the country’s nuclear deterrence strategy. Confirming the suggestion that Israel possesses nuclear capability, the author views the country’s ambiguous policy regarding nuclear weapons consistentwith its objectives in the Middle East. He then takes the assumption and necessary conditions for the success of deterrence strategy into account and on this basis, he reveals the causes of failure of Israel’s deterrence strategy in the region. From his point of view, the Al-Quds Intifada and the Lebanese Hezbollah’s victory in south Lebanon are the most vivid examples of the failure of such a strategy.

The Persian Gulf has long been entangled with security problems and troubles and faces the influential presence of transregional forces that hinder the formation of a kind of collective security system. In this article, security dilemmas and obstacles are briefly classified into three domestic, regional and international levels to address the phenomenon of regional insecurity in the Persian Gulf. According to the author, as long as these obstacles particularly the distrust found among the regional countries persist, it will not be unlikely for new crises to unfold. However, it is notable that the phenomenon of insecurity in the post-Cold War world is not to the benefit of world does not serve the interests of great powers especially the United States.

The advent of the Islamic Revolution has left numerous effects on the Middle Eastern countries in particular Iran’s neighboring countries. This article intends to extrapolate the influence of the Revolution on the political and social forces in Iraq and actions undertaken by the Saddam’s regime to counter the Revolution. The author also attempts to analyze recent developments in Iraq and assesses the status of the Shii community. The conditions were not ripe to be influential for the Shia under Saddam especially after the 1980 and 1991 suppressions until the Iraqi political system was overthrown by the coalition forces. To the author, the coalition forces’ strategy involves not to provoke the Shia and prevent the formation of Shii liberalization movements particularly those affected by Iran, though the establishment of affected system in the country can increase the influence of the Iranian Revolution.

From the 1950s onwards, the Soviet Union has been the main supplier of weapons for a number of Arab Middle East countries. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia sought eagerly to continue and expand military cooperation with the regional states, but factors including Russia’s economic weakness and the entry of rivals from the former Soviet republics into the Middle East arms bazaar caused difficulties for this objective. Looking at Russia’s military cooperation strategies toward the regional countries, the author examines the country’s military relations with Iran, Syria, Libya and the United Arab Emirates between 1992 and 2000. Also, the author has given scant attention to Russia’s military engagement with other regional countries as well. This investigation demonstrates that Moscow, in spite of US and Israeli pressures, continues to pursue its heightened military exports, though the Middle East is not located at the top of the Russian foreign and security policy objectives and priorities.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union and the expansion of diplomatic and economic relations between Saudi Arabia and Russia, it was expected that the grounds for the establishment of friendly and permanent relations would be provided between the two countries. But in recent years, these bilateral ties have been characterized by distrust and uncertainty due to numerous deep disagreements. These disputes revolve around issues such as decision-making on oil prices, investment and commerce, Russian allegations about Saudi policies toward the Chechen question, Saudi security concerns regarding Russian arms deals with Israel and Moscow-Tehran technical cooperation. This article examines the viewpoints held by the two partie's authorities toward the disputed issues and identifies probable consequences of these complex relationships.