فصلنامه راهبرد
پیاپی 78 (بهار 1395)

One of the main functions of strategic and political research institutes is assisting decision making system through designing desired objectives. The main question of this article is that what are the processes and methodological stages of developing the desired pattern or defining objectives or formulating general policies. From methodological point of view, this article tries to provide a rather precise methodological framework for cunducting strategic research with the content of defining objectives and designing the desired model. In this context, the author intends to explain ideals and expectations and to give a coherent description of goals. In fact, the envisaged model aims at predicting future events which include concrete outputs, general policies, strategies and plans. The process of formulating the model contains eleven stages including describing the current situation, studying experiences, developing input values, calculating the gap between the current situation and the desired situation, etc.

After the establishment of the International Court of Justice in 1998, the United States faced the question of how to deal with this new institution. American politicians and decision-makers had lots of hopes and fears when it came to the ICC. Thus, the US position towards the Court has experienced quite a lot of highs and lows. At one point, the US policy was that of cooperation and at other time it was all about contention. All of this, of course, could be interpreted within the context of the country's foreign policy and national interests. This article aims to take under consideration the said chronology and review the legal questions raised by the US with regards to the Court and its Statute. In doing this, we are aided by the imperatives of the US foreign policy and the measures it take internationally.

This article reviews the comparative public diplomacy policy of the United States under Bush and Obama administrations in the Middle East. The main question in this article is that what are the differences of public diplomacy of the US under Bush and Obama administrations? In this regard, it is hypothesized that the September 11 attacks have increased the importance of the public diplomacy in the foreign policy of the US in the Middle East. According to the findings of this article, during the Bush administration, the foreign policy was based on the logic of unilateralism and warmongering and Mr. Bush did not believe in soft diplomacy and the usefulness of public diplomacy. Therefore, the public diplomacy was interpreted in the context of "war of ideas ". Hence, to win this war, the main aim of the mass media in this regard was not engagement, rather it was introducing American values and ideas to ensure the national interests of the United States. In contrast, during the Obama presidency, although the main purpose was the same, but he preferred to change the previous approach and advocated an idea based on multilateralism and engagement. Interaction and direct dialogue adopted by Obama have been showed through messages like the congratulation of Nowruz and Ramadan.

Cultural relativism is one of the well-known arguments of those who believe in moral relativism; different morals existing among diverse cultures indicate that moral absolutism has no value. Hence, there is no single origin as wisdom or human nature for common moral judgment .On the other hand, according to moral absolutism, moral precepts are universal and considered the antithesis of moral relativism. We show in this article that encounter between these two theories before and after the appearance of communication age and cyberspace have serious consequences and previous moral and cultural achievements are to be undermined. This article argues that cultural relativism does not necessarily lead to moral relativism without taking information era into consideration. That is to say, cultural relativism interrelates with moral absolutism. Afterwards, we indicate that cultural relativism is more connected with moral relativism by considering communication in the context of information era. That is why cyberspace plays a key role in creating values and modern cultural and moral phenomena. It provides a new version of the relationship between culture and morality, so that we can call it a new theory that is "cyber moral and cultural relativism".

Without education, all experiences and ideas which constitute the heritage of human life will be destroyed. Political education is the sign of civilization and high culture because organizing and conducting human affairs are only possible by educated people involved in this field. This article studies political education in Iran with an emphasis on information age. Iranians have been very active in acquiring knowledge in politics, for example, we can mention saadi, Farabi and Nizam al-molk. In the first section of this article, we analyze traditional political education in Iran, which was based on oral culture within a patrimonial system. The second section is devoted to modern and bureaucratic education which started with the constitutional revolution. Finally, we discuss political education in the post-modern era which started in 1990 characterized by cyber facilities providing many opportunities and challenges through virtual policy networks. The author tries to describe the specifications of a standard political education which is compatible with information age.

This article investigates the forward deployed status of US nuclear weapons in the context of universality of American interests in the world. The United States as the sole superpower emerged from the Cold War has always tried to be a leader in setting the broad geopolitical agenda. Along these lines, the US has an interest in the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons around the world. One of the regions which plays an indispensable role in global security and political trends is Europe. The United States during the 1960s under the presidency of General Eisenhower, deployed a substantial number of its nuclear weapons according to the policy of "nuclear sharing" in the territory of NATO member countries. This article attempts to identify the benefits of the deployment of these weapons. Our research methodology is descriptive based on library sources and documents to collect data.

The Caspian Sea is the largest lake in the world and despite its size, it is not covered by the Law of the Sea Convention. Regarding the specific characteristics of the Caspian Sea, it is ruled by a special regime which is on the basis of the Soviet-Iranian agreements of 1921 and 1940 but the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and increase in the number of littoral states from two to five, i.e, Iran, Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have made necessary a new order based on a fair partition of the sea. These arrangements should include commuter ships, fishing and fisheries, environmental protection and exploration of the sea bed. The legal regime of the Caspian Sea was affected by a variety of economic, political, geopolitical, strategic and energy security considerations during the last decades. Also, due to activities made by important oil and gas multinational consortia, the presence of the trans-regional powers as a result of investment contracts and exploration and exploitation of natural resources under the Caspian Sea by littoral emerging countries, this debate has attracted the broad political and legal circles at the international level. Three newly independent countries are seeking to determine a new legal regime for the Caspian sea. Thus the Caspian sea has found a special place in the region and provided many grounds for conflict and cooperation among the littoral states.

The collapse of the bipolar system made necessary the revision of the concept of security. The inability of the mainstream thoughts to define the concept of security in a broad and multi-dimensional manner, led to the emergence of new theoretical schools in the field of international relations. The Copenhagen School is one of these theoretical schools. This school studies the national security of countries at the regional level. One of the things that will have a major impact on national security, is the regional security system quality. The regional security structure of state is formed within a particular geographic area with the aim of securing the region. The formation of regional security structures can also promote actors, national security. This article adopts constructivist approach in the context of a regional security system and applies the security theory developed "Barry Buzan". It uses causal explanation to explore the Persian Gulf regional security system in the post-saddam era and its effect on the national security of Iraq. It also examines the role of regional powers and the U.S. in createing this new order. Results reveal that regional security system in the post-Saddam period is based on the balance of power between Iran and Saudi Arabia. This new order intensified the ethno-religious competition in the domestic scene of Iraq and led to the failure of state-building process and foreign policy goals in Iraq. But the presence of extra-regional powers such as the United States, as the creator of the new balance of power in this country dealt a blow to its national security. The main objective of article is to show the trends and factors involved in the formation of a new security order and to examine the consequences of this order for the national security of Iraq.

This study examines the relationship between protecting minority rights and national security concerns. This article considers that assimilation policy based on an integrative approach has not been successful anywhere in the world to unite all walks of people in the society and to overcome security crisis. Cultural diversity in the sense of accepting differences can lead to peaceful coexistence and national integration. Cultural autonomy as a modern mechanism has confronted many security challenges. Consensus democracy that emphasizes on minoritie's political participation, especially through ethnic parties and electoral systems has been the common suggestion put forward by experts on minorities affairs for communities deeply divided to prevent conflicts. This article deals with the participation of minorities in social and economic life. Discussions about social deprivation express that the elimination of poverty and social justice lead to the integration of minorities into the society and strengthen national solidarity and security.

Structural and geopolitical developments in the late twentieth century created a new era, the explanation of which requires a new urderstanding. In this turbulent era, the establishment of regional organization has become a dominant idea motivating nation- states which seek to deal effectively with the pressures resulting from globalization and to consolidate thair power. However, the structrual understanding of regional integration necessitates a historical knowledge of transformations which have occurred at the world level. Economic cooperation organization (ECO) which was established about thirty years ago have been exposed to many obstacles and challenges in its process of integration. The main question posed by the anthors is that what are the main reasons for the lack of integration among ECO's members? The hypothesis made to answer the question is that geoplitical, geoeconomic, normative perceptual and geoplitical challenges are the most important obstacles existing in the process of its integration. Also, the lack of the logic of functional, normative and procedural relevance, dominance of a competitive and abstract approach and the tactical and instrumental attitude of member states towards this organization are among other factors creating serious challenges for ECO in achieving its goals. The authors use new regionalism, integration and comparative methodology to test their hypothesis. The findings of research show that due to factors such as different perceptions of security and threat by member states, their different levels of development, and current regional and international developments, the members are more interested in extra organization alliances.