فصلنامه مطالعات راهبردی
سال هشتم شماره 2 (پیاپی 28، تابستان 1384)

Following the demise of the Prophet of Islam, the Islamic polity witnessed a transitional period in which the caliphate in established as the political system. It occurred while in the Shii viewpoint, Imamate as a religious-political organization linked to the prophecy had to assume such an important responsibility. Therefore, Shiism as led by Imam Ali (Peace be upon him) was marginalized. This situation lasted until the Alavi government was created following the murder of the third Caliph. Although security is identified as a public goods that is secured through the government’s management, the question that thy he did not resist the dominating political current despite his righteousness leads us not to consider the foundations of the security theory in the Alavi period as merely limited to his government’s time.This article, which is published in a paper series about the Islamic theory of security, deals with a sensitive era stretching from the demise of the Prophet of Islam to the establishment of the Alavi government. Proposing the concept of “securitized identity,” the author indeed speaks of the priority of the “preservation of the Sharia per se” over the “assumption of government for guidance” because of the existence of alternative options for the achievement of guidance.

The role of intelligence in decision-making refers back to several thousands ago given the importance of the issue. The relationship between intelligence and command in battle fields has at least been recorded five centuries before Christ in the literature on war and strategy; however strategic intelligence and decision-making on national security areas refers to around four to five decades ago. The significance of the issue in strategic circles is now clear and undeniable. The author has tried in this paper to describe the concept of intelligence, strategic intelligence and the process of decision-making in national security arena, and to explain the role of strategic intelligence and its interaction with such a process. Since these discussions are almost unprecedented in Iran, the author tries to reconsider and redefine the firm and close relationship between these elements and to explore their mutual impact on each other as well. By explaining these discussions, the author shows how open and secret intelligence systems in countries influence political and strategic decision-making and by which methods they may be overshadowed by strategic intelligence.

What is real security and how it may be acquired? To answer this question requires reconsideration of previous thinkers’ theories particularly those proposed by thinkers of the realist school, which seek security under the shadow of a strong state with huge military equipment within the frameworks based on coercion and violence. The author maintains that such definition will bring about increased insecurity. Therefore, in order to achieve real and lasting security, current concepts on security must be revised and it should be sought in more fundamental processes such as cultural values, socialization processes, consensus and collective cooperation. In other words, it should be looked at from a sociological perspective. Hence, this article is of both analytical and prescriptive nature and answers the question that which parameters contribute to the sense of security and what sociopolitical and economic relations are more likely to create maximum security for individuals, nations and the entire earth planet. To do so, the author proposes and extrapolates the concept of security within a sociological and simultaneously holistic framework in order to include three individual, national and international levels. In his view, this inclusive perspective needs the explanation of the relationship between the two categories of ideology and border in its sociological version.

This article intends to analyze and appraise the social foundations of social security. The author believes that states can conventionally play four roles including removal of conflict, representation of society, expediency, and reconstruction of human and a modern society. From among the four functions, the second and third functions appear appropriate to the analysis of the state in the Third World countries. These different behavioral patterns necessitate national security in the Third World be considered as arising from a specific formation continuing historically and socially rather than the result of international power structure or autocratic regimes. On this ground, this article seeks to view national security as a variable dependent on social processes and relations. Such an argument is derived from the assumption that despite the increase in state vulnerability, the area of citizens’ power has grown as well. This equation demands a new comprehensive analysis, which in recent versions is translated into the strength of society and state efficiency and legitimacy in reducing domestic harms and foreign threats and not just into the absolute state authority.

The sweet water constitutes just three percent of the planet’s total water. The difficult conditions become apparent when we learn that the distribution of this volume of water in various areas is unequal. Furthermore, ceaseless population growth and growing consumption of water in various works give rise to sensitive conditions under which many scholars call the 21st century the hydropolitical century. Hence, in the relations among political units in an area where the degree of rainfall is scant and water will provide the ground for future tensions. Afghanistan’s internal mountains are the sources of two Hirmand and Hariroud rivers in eastern Iran. Iran-Afghanistan hydropolitical ties during the last decade have been based on instrumental use of water factor. For this reason, a large number of Iran’s populated settlements in Sistan province have been seriously damaged which led them to migrate to other areas in the country. Given this background, the Iranian state, with Turkmenistan’s cooperation, has built the Friendship Dam above the Hariroud (Tajan) river whose source is located at Afghanistan. Among other things the designers intend to secure Mashad’s drinking water. With such an action, Iran’s eastern part will be included in Kabul’s sphere of influence. Thus, the author believes that in order to escape the negative consequences of this dependence, the Iranian government should establish a kind of geopolitical exchange with Afghanistan.

US and Europe’s strategy to make fundamental changes in the Middle East and North Africa in particular and in the Muslim World in general includes such aspects as nation-building, state-building, culture-building, religion-building and elite-building. These aspects are followed within the framework of one of the two approaches including ‘Alqaeda-Rule’ and ‘Rule-Alqaeda’ or a combination of these two with different priorities. The first approach is founded upon the destruction of the existing structures and then the creation of liberal values and norms, and the second approach refers to the replacement of this priority. The author of the article argues that George W. Bush, unlike his first term of presidency who operationalized and realized the first approach (with military attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan), pursued the second approach in his second term that is ‘Rule-Alqaeda’. Within such context of change in beliefs, values and norms, culture- and nation-building is possible by relying on soft power within the framework of religion-, culture- and nation-building. In the meantime, this approach is faced with two major challenges namely security of energy transfer and war on terrorism and extremism, and ultimately it has to compete with the fourth wave of democracy or illiberal democracies, which are rooted in the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

The September 11th attacks demonstrated to the US administration that world strategic setting has undergone deep changes and that new threats have emerged in the international scene. Other actors have entered the scene which lack the characteristics of nation-states and in order to counter the threats, previous strategies are not very efficient in this area. In order to encounter the new threats and to secure its national objective and interests, the United Sates has to change its defense strategy. This change was made in various realms and aspects. Security environment and its actors were considered, the instruments and methods of countering were reappraised, new missions were designed for military forces, the country’s military expenditures increased significantly and its focal point was shifted from great powers toward the middle regional actors and transnational organizations. While emphasizing the creation of military bases and desirable alliances around the world geographically, the United States shifted its attention from Europe and East Asia to the Middle East. These transformations occurred both in strategic goals and interests and in defense instruments and methods as well as geographical areas. The new threat required new defense strategy as well. On this basis, this article deals with the degree of change and continuity in US defense strategy after the September 11th. The new military-security environment, national goals and US vital interests determine the basis for such change and continuity.