نشریه مطالعات خاورمیانه
سال بیستم شماره 2 (پیاپی 73، تابستان 1392)

Nobody could imagine that Buazizi’s self-immolation in Tunisia would usher in a huge crisis in political power in the Middle East and North Africa. The crisis enlarged with the passage of time, being referred to as the Arab Spring, Arab revolutions, Islamic awakening, human awakening and so on. The main theme of the crisis included people’s opposition to their country’s political structure as well as objection to the values offered by their government. Violent reaction by the Arab governments to popular demands further exacerbated people’s confrontation with the Arab regimes, becoming a turning point in the regional balance of power. The rapid pace of developments in the Middle East and North Africa made the large actors of the international system concerned about the consequences for their own interest in this strategically important region. For this reason, a group of domestic, regional and international players became involved in such developments. In this paper, the authors seek to explain the causes of the crisis in the region, drawing upon Michael Brecher’s model.

The Middle East is an anarchical regional system that tends to work according to the realist rules of realpolitik. The inherent characteristic of this regional system has caused change in the conduct of actors to affect the security and interests of other nations of the Middle East. Recent instability and revolutions in the Arab states have left significant impact on the Iranian and Saudi interests as two large actors in the Middle East, leading to heightened regional rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia over power and influence as well as to increased tension in their mutual relations. This research addresses regional rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia in light of recent revolutions in the Arab states.

Since Iran’s strategically delicate location in the Middle East, the presence of crises and political instability in the neighboring countries and political challenges with large neighbors have given rise to threats to the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran has consistently pursued stability and security in the Persian Gulf within the framework of cooperation with regional nations and withdrawal of foreign troops. In spite of the efforts made by Iran, the Persian Gulf continues to face a variety of security challenges. This paper identifies the security challenges in the Persian Gulf for Iran and suggests solutions to counter them. It also analyzes Iran’s role in bringing security to the Persian Gulf and regional equations and the security challenges ahead of Iran’s objectives in the region in order to suggest the best possible solutions.

The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is the most recent text concerning the rules governing the sea, which contains innovations in this regard. Despite many states took part in the negotiations on the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea leading to the adoption of the 1982 Convention which was later signed and ratified by many states, there are still different and occasionally conflicting practices among the members of the international community in this regard. The Convention has also provided for regulations on the right to innocent passage, which poses many challenges. This is indeed one of the main reasons why Iran has declined to join the 1982 Convention despite an Iranian delegate took part in the Third Conference. Hence, in this regard, the 1993 Act on the Maritime Zones of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea will be applicable. This paper deals with the right to innocent passage in the 1982 Convention and the practice of many states in this respect. It also compares those practices with the relevant Iran’s maritime zones law.

Turkey is among the Middle Eastern states that have begun playing a major part in the regional power equations after the uprising broke out in Syria. The Justice and Development Party in Turkey, which pursued zero problems with neighbors, shifted its attitude, intensifying the tensions in some neighboring countries. Affected by international and regional factors, Turkey implemented a series of policies, which have diverged from Erdogan government’s declared foreign policy. Drawing upon John Mearsheimer’s aggressive realist theory, the authors seek to test the hypothesis that Turkey regards the Syrian crisis as a chance to increase its regional influence and status, to engineer a new balance of power and geopolitics for its benefit and to build confidence in cooperation and alliance with the West in the region. On this basis, it has adopted the policy of intensifying the crisis and regime change in Syria, conducting aggressive actions.

Analyzing the nature, social background and political instability is a recurring theme in studying rentier political systems. Scholars agree that rentier states are categorized as non-democratic systems due to economic, political, cultural and social reasons. Many countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America are among the rentier states. Exclusive access to revenues leads to their independence from the social forces. Research findings demonstrate that a set of variables including bureaucratic authoritarian political structure, corporatism, and patrimonialsm represent the parameters determining the social nature and background, and political crisis and instability in rentier states.