نشریه مطالعات خاورمیانه
سال چهاردهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 49، زمستان 1385 - بهار 1386)

Numerous disputes among the Persian Gulf nations as well as the great powers’ intervention have prevented the formation of an effective security system in the region so far. Studying Iran’s policies for maintaining Persian Gulf security and Arab and U.S. policies towards Iran, this article demonstrates that Iran has continuously been trying to expand its relations with the neighboring countries and create a kind of collective security system. However, certain regional and trans-regional actors have refused to recognize Iran’s real place up to now. Particularly the United States still wishes to continue its interventionist policy through its military presence and confronting Iran. Such a policy can escalate the likelihood of a military clash in the Persian Gulf region.

With terrorism turning into the most serious concern for international peace and security, the understanding of the nature and complexities of the phenomenon has attracted the attention of experts on Middle East regional issues. Examining the indicators of the increase and importance of new terrorism after the September 11th events, this article delves into various perceptions of how new terrorism took shape and how to tackle it. The author believes that the current method of confronting new terrorism has not yielded positive results and has heightened mutual distrust rather than providing security. This refers to difference in perceptions of three subjects including the root causes of new terrorism, ways to struggle it, and misunderstanding of mutual expectations. Thus, success in confronting terrorism and enhanced international security will depend on making regional and world perceptions closer together.

This article deals with the U.S. attitude towards the Muslim countries in light of September 11th events and their repercussions. On this basis, three variables including U.S. interests, domestic conditions prevailing in the Muslim countries and their resultant challenges, and changes in the structure of the international system have led American policy-makers to conclude that the time was ripe for making changes in the political structure of the Muslim countries. Hence, what has been considered is the pseudo-religious liberal democratic political system in which a type of amalgamation between Islamic commandments and the modern world’s values is attempted. In this way, the Islamic religion is considered as devoid of its carriers. The important point here is that to promote this project needs further isolation of radical Islamists and participation of moderate Islamists.

An investigation into the quality of energy production and consumption in the United States demonstrates the country’s dependence upon foreign energy resources. Estimates also show that despite certain oil explorations in the world, no other single region can replace the Persian Gulf oil. By placing these two statements together, the author suggests that the Persian Gulf will remain as the focal point of the U.S. international energy policy. Thus, obviously U.S. national security is interlocked and affected by regions possessing rich energy reserves like the Persian Gulf. The author takes advantage of the significant events in the Persian Gulf and the doctrines expounded by the United States in order to examine this interrelationship. U.S. policy-making and engagement in the Persian Gulf region will disrupt the access of industrial nations to the region’s oil and finally create crises for them, due to such consequences as exacerbation of regional crises, decrease in oil production and rise in its price.

The quality of Jewish exodus to Palestine and efforts at occupying this territory as well as policies pursued by then great powers particularly Great Britain is among the important topics that still attracts the attention of scholars on Middle East political history. Studying various historical data, the author has revealed how the Jewish Agency encouraged Jews to emigrate by attracting the support of British politicians, propaganda and exploiting legal loopholes. In this way, they attempted to change the demographic composition of the territory. The Agency proceeded to the point that it even organized illegal migration and at the same time gave armaments to extremist Jewish groups inside Palestine. Despite Palestinian inhabitants and the Mandate government reacted to such endeavors, the final result was to the benefit of the Jewish Agency and the process of judaization of Palestine went along rapidly.

Following the rise of socioeconomic hardship deriving from development policies in the 1960s and 1970s especially from the import substitution policy, a number of the Middle Eastern nations gradually attempted to change their developmental approach. Indeed, what was considered since then was stabilization and structural adjustment policies which gained the support of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Drawing on the experience of four countries including Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco, this article seeks to explore the roots, processes and consequences of this new approach. As evidence displays, the notable point is that in all of the case studies, patterns governing the nations’ foreign relations have had significant impact on new developmental policies.