فصلنامه بین المللی ژئوپلیتیک
سال یازدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 38، تابستان 1394)

Strategists of the U.S government have engaged in a new range of threats to the national security after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The United States has attempted to take maximum advantage of these attacks to impose a mono-polar system on the international system. Thus, it puts the doctrine of preventive war and preemptive operations. In support of this doctrine, it is claimed that war against America will occur in the future. Although it may not be immediate, but it is inevitable and reactions must be made beforehand, because delayed reactions will contribute to more costs and risks. The Americans mention issues such as terrorism, extremism, Islamic fundamentalism and weapons of mass destruction as threats that could affect the national strategy of all countries.The application of the doctrine of preventive war and preemptive operations in Afghanistan and Iraq by the U.S shows the importance of a careful investigation of the dimensions and the results of this doctrine. So, this article investigates “the nature and scope (requirements and contexts) of preventive war of the United States in Southwest Asia". The research is descriptive- analytic, and data gathering procedure is based on library and filed-finding methods. The statistical sample of this research is 170 experts. To calculate the sample size, "Cochran" was used, and of 63 persons was selected. Quantitative variables were measured through inferential statistics (parametric and nonparametric), and measures of central tendency and dispersion were used. Content analysis was used in order to investigate the qualitative variables.Discussion and Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the United States changed its national security policy. President Bush and officials in his administration announced that under special conditions in future, the U.S would attack before it is invaded, because prevention and defense will no longer protect America against attacks. The 2002 National Security Strategy codified this doctrine and specified that preemptive war will be an important tool of US foreign policy against terrorists and rogue states that develop NBC weapons. Fukuyama believes that Islamic fundamentalists and their access to weapons of mass destruction technology are the most significant danger for the United States. According to this strategy, the preventive war is the same as a preemptive war and America is allowed for a military intervention in order to halt terrorism. The atmosphere that was created after the September 11, attacks led to the foreign policy of coercion and threat in the political sphere of the United States of America. Finally, the U.S attacked Afghanistan in 2001.During a relatively long period of political confrontation between the U.S. and his Western supporters and the Baath regime in Iraq, the West intensified measures against Iraq during a period of approximately six months before the invasion of the U.S to Iraq. This can be named the transition period of America’s cold war against Iraq to hot war. The incidents which happened during this period are of great importance and can be regarded as the evidences of the United States’ invasion to Iraq. The most important of these events include the issuance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441 on Iraq, highlight of the threat of Iraq in America's national security documents in 2002, transfer huge armed forces to the northern Persian Gulf, organization of the Iraqi opposition groups, regular meetings of the Security Council. The researcher believes that in order to understand the nature of preventive action, attention has to be paid to the nature and context and to the discourse of literature in academic societies of the West. Accordingly, the nature and context of preventive war can be expressed as follows:Military actions conducted under the title of preventive war have a combined nature that uses political, economic, social, cultural and military tools to reprocess the formation of regional powers in such a way that they meet the common interests of the allied forces especially the United States. The accompaniment of other global powers like Russia and China, which are in competition with each other, for the purpose of ensuring their natural interests, is predictable. It is also note-worthy that considering the justifications of this doctrine (terrorism, extremism, Islamic fundamentalism and WMDs), the aim of the invasion could be the state or non-state actors.Preemptive strike has dimensions that are mentionable in the form of already-mentioned contexts, conditions and requirements. The mentioned dimensions can provide the defense strategists of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the indicators required for the supervision of the evolutions of the national, regional and international environment to use in national defense planning with a comprehensive approach in the form of a general model.

The province of Kirkuk is considered as one of the most important controversial regions between Kurdish people and the central government that has overshadowed all peaceful negotiations among Kurdish parties and central government of Iraq from the foundation of this country up to now. The fate of this province has been one of the controversial issues between The Kurds and Iraqi central government. Iraqi Kurds have ever considered Kirkuk as inseparable land of Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdish leaders have always called it “heart of Kurdistan” or “Qods of Kurdistan”. They have repeatedly claimed in their political position that they never compromise upon its fate. On the other hand, Iraqi central government does not regard this area as Kurdish habitats and so it has never accepted Kurdish requests claiming counting on Kirkuk as an incident annexation of Kurdistan. This research has assumed that Kirkuk’s geo-economic weight in the national and regional (international) scale is one of the barriers preventing the annexation of Kirkuk to Kurdistan region. This research with its geopolitical approach and with its descriptive-analytic method using library and field findings investigates the barriers preventing the joining of Kirkuk to Kurdistan regional government.In countries with heterogeneous racial - ethnic, the relation between the ruling race with other races is of very important issues which are studied by geo-political geographers. The country of Iraq is one of the numerical countries which compose of various heterogeneous races and religions and it is the very direct manufacture and creature of Britain’s Middle-East related politics in twentieth century. Kurds make the second big races in Iraq who have been engaged in struggle with Iraqi Regime from the foundation of this country until 1991 to obtain their political rights. In 1992, the first Kurdish regional government was established in a part of Kurdistan of Iraq which had been modified earlier as a safe area by the Western collation forces under the leadership of the United States. The area in which the Kurdish regional government was formed included three states of Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dahuk. The areas which the Kurds claim as being parts of Kurdistan are Kirkuk and a part of Mosul, Diyala, and Salah Al-Din. Kirkuk is the most controversial area between the Kurds and central government which has influenced all peaceful negotiations between Kurd parties and Iraqi central government. In scrutinizing the annexation of Kirkuk to Kurdistan, a very important question is raised: what is the most principal obstacle against the addendum of Kirkuk to Kurdish regional government? For getting the response to this question the null hypothesis of the research has been reviewed as follow: “It seems that geo-economic weight of Kirkuk, in national and international scale, is the most important obstacle in joining Kirkuk to Kurdistan region”. The research is descriptive- analytic in terms of nature and method. Data gathering procedure is based on library and field finding. Data analysis will be done using qualitative and quantitative analysis methods, and conclusion will be done using the two methods. The study and analysis of findings of the research lead to the following results, which are summarized as follows: The controversial problem of the fate of Kirkuk and the controversial areas between the Iraqi central government and the Kurdistan regional government had been rooted historical from the beginning of the government of Iraq in 1923. Kurdish people that is the inhabitants of the province of Mosul, Ottoman or Southern Kurdistan, continuously and without interruption in line with political demands with their ruling regimes are fighting battles on Iraq's sovereignty as well as the issue of Kirkuk is indeed the most important topics of negotiations between the Iraqi central government and the movement of Kurdish people. As mentioned earlier, determining the scope of administrative-political problem of Kurdistan Regional Government was the main reason for the failure of talks between Iraqi Kurds and the ruling leader of Baathist, Hassan al-Bakr and Mustafa Barzani in March 1970, which was not included the province of Kirkuk that caused the failure of negotiations in 1974, and the central government of Iraq was again at war with the Kurds in that country, and the main focus of negotiations between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan led by Jalal Talabani, government central Iraq in 1984, and negotiations between the front of Kurdistan (consisting Kurdish political parties) with the Iraqi central government in 1991 to determine the extent of Kurdistan, has been especially the fate of Kirkuk province and the other controversial areas.After oversetting of Baath regime of Iraq in 2003 by the allies, led by the United States and returning Iraqi oppositionists groups and formation of the interimGoverning Council and transitional government, one of the most serious subjects between the Kurdistan Regional Government and political parties in Iraq (Sunni and Shiite), the peaceful settlement of the question was the fate of Kirkuk and Other controversial areas which it is reflected in Article (58) of the interim government Act at transitional stage, as well as Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution can be find. As noted earlier, the leaders of political parties of Kurdistan, the Kirkuk province, historically and geographically consider as an integral part of Kurdistan and though focusing on this issue, don’t deny the existence of a genuine minorities such as the Turkmen, Assyrians, Kaldany and Arabs in this area. they are demanding for a peaceful resolution of the Kirkuk-determination within the framework of Article 140 of the Constitution in federal Iraq.In response to the main question it should be noted that according to investigations carried out in the findings, it is possible to achieve the following In historical study of the issue of Kirkuk and with regard to the provisions of negotiations between the Kurdish political movement and the governments on Iraq, the most reason disagreement of the Iraqi central government to juncture Kirkuk to Kurdistan, is the geopolitical weight and the geo-economic position of this region in Iraq. As being an important part of Iraq's oil reserves in the province of Kirkuk, the position relationship between the center and north, as well as the high potential agricultural and animal husbandry of this area cause to increase the geopolitical weight in the region compared to other regions of Iraq. Therefore, from the viewpoint of political rulers in Baghdad, the joining of Kirkuk to Kurdistan, Iraq is not only the central government's economic tightening will also provide suitable conditions for Kurdish independence and the territorial integrity of Iraq to be hazarded.In this study, by librarian resources and the Internet, as well as in the field of environment study was conducted, the results show that the most important obstacle to annexation of Kirkuk to the Kurdistan Regional Government, It is the weight of geopolitical and geo-economical of Kirkuk.The data analysis using SPSS software:The main hypothesis: It seems that the position of geo-economical of Kirkuk in scale of national and regional is one of the serious obstacles to annexation Kirkuk to Kurdistan. In order to prove the hypothesis of the study with regard to the obstacles in the field of (Kirkuk), by Delphi method, Results obtained are used faculty member looks out the survey questionnaire returned by the 25 individuals questioned the respondents, a total of 19 people have been considered the choices of too many and too much about the role of the hypothesis in lack of annexation of Kirkuk to the Kurdistan region. The main hypothesisThe chi-square: 20.600DOF: 3The significant level: 0.000Investigating the hypothesis of the chi-square test (chi-square) was used. The results indicate that the chi-square value to influence national and regional geo-economic position of the annexation of Kirkuk to the Kurdistan Regional Government (in federal Iraq) is 20.60 and Since this amount is larger than the critical value and significance level calculated sig = 0/000 smaller than alpha (a = 0/05) so H0 is rejected and H1 hypothesis is confirmed. That is the geo-economic position of Kirkuk at the national and regional level in joining of Kirkuk to Kurdistan region is one of the serious obstacles. Considering the above, the main hypothesis of this study is proved. The fate of Kirkuk and other controversial areas can be of the most serious problems between the Iraqi central government and the Kurdish regional government after the downfall of Iraqi Baath regime. From Kurdish point of view, the province of Kirkuk is an impartible part of Kurdistan. All negotiations between Iraqi central government and Kurdish movement in Kurdistan, Iraq, have been under or around this key issue affecting all circumstances between the Kurds and The central governments. All negotiations between Kurds and other previous Kingdom or Baath Regimes have been unsuccessful because of lack of understanding on the problem of Kirkuk’s final fate. The failure to solve Kirkuk’s problem in a peaceful way could create an explosive dangerous crisis between the Kurds and Iraqi central government which involves not only Iraq but also neighboring countries directly or indirectly. So, the importance of Kirkuk’s problem and inquiry in this regard could be of very fundamental and basic issues concerning geo-politic studies.The Kurdistan of Iraq, or in other words, Kurdish territory, includes Erbil, Sulaimaniyah, Dahuk and Kurdish settlers of the province of Mosul, Diyala, Salahuddin. From 1991, three provinces of Erbil, Dahuk and Solaimaniyah have been located under Kurdish government and in reality central government does not practically have any power in these areas.They are governed by Kurdish parties. After overthrowing Baath regime in Iraq, and at the same time with American military operations in the region, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces with international collation forces made Kirkuk free from Saddam’s power and the majority of Kurds deported from their own home by Saddam came back to Kirkuk once again. After formation the first government in Iraq after Saddam, the earliest and the most important Kurdish requests has been the interpolation of Kirkuk and other under dispute areas of Kurdistan with Iraqi central government which with the efforts of Kurdish parties this law was passed in the drafting of Iraqi constitution in the interim constitution by the legal principle named the law 58 and also in the main constitution of Iraq named 140. This issue was approved in continual and existing constitution of Iraq. This was a legal way towards solving the fate of Kirkuk and other under disputed areas.It is a long term period of 12 years form collapse of Saddam regime in 2003, and according to the Article number 140 of the Iraqi main constitution, although the fate of Kirkuk and other under dispute areas would have been supposed to be clarified by the end of 2007, the reality is that this problem has not still been solved and evidences show some barriers and some obstacles have been brought about by some groups related to central government against the implementation of this law.Paying attention to data analysis of findings in this research, in the present situation in Iraq, and according to the religious conflicts and also the extreme racial and religious convergence instead of national convergence, as well as problem making by different groups from Iraq in the implementation of the Article number 140 of basic constitution of Iraq, and regarding regional interference especially Turkey’s clear interference in the problem of Kirkuk and also the formation of Turkmen majority in Kirkuk in the frame of “Iraqi Turkmens Front” and more than this, the lack of adherence to Iraqi constitution by central government, particularly lack of effort to do the article 140 of the constitution, which clearly states the peaceful way to solve the problem of Kirkuk and other under dispute areas, the annexation of Kirkuk to Kurdistan seems out of expectation.

United Arabic Emirates claimed the three Iranian islands (Abu Musa and Tunb Islands) in 1992. In that year, Sheikh Zayed, President of the Government of the United Arabic Emirates, announced that this dispute will be referred to the International Court of Justice. At the same time, the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council, and Egypt, and Syria confirmed the claim of UAE over the ownership of Abu Musa. UAE still continues to pursue its claims through Persian Gulf Cooperation Council or other valid or invalid referees. As this intention is a geopolitics dispute and not a politic one, so it seems necessary to investigate the goals this state by a scientific and realistic analysisResearch The research method is descriptive–analytic, and data collection procedure is based on library findings. The research question is that “what is the main reason of UAE claims on Tunb and Abu Musa islands? The research hypothesis is that “it seems that UAE's intention is nation-building using this claim”. It is believed that "the claims on territory, sovereignty and national identity" is accorded to "cultural ideals. There are various reasons for resumption of territorial claims on the three islands. But the most important reason, especially in this period of time, is the problems face the authorities of Abu Dhabi. The country considered specific plans for resolving the challenges posed by identity and legitimacy crisis, and one of the most important plans is making national identity in order to promote nationalism for nation-building in the country. These claims can be analyzed from the constructivist view as an attempt to remake identity for nation-building in the country, and also as an attempt to be known abroad. From a constructivist point of view, we send some conceptions or signs to other according to the understood that we have about our identity, then others interprete our signs or conceptions and sends a sign according to his/her interpretation and this is how our identity and other's iderntity as friend or foe are formed. Abu Dhabi authorities define "common destiny", "mutual understanding" and "making confidence" for themselves as important factors in forming a safe society against an "other" (Iran). In addition to following some convergence issues in the society and between UAE and other southern contries of Persian Gulf and other Arab states, they also use the fundamental problem in the formation of collective identity, i.e. the anarchy, for the extended divergence of Arabs and Iran for three islands issues. The most important consequence of constructing an anarchy culture that Vant expressed it as constructivist, is the lack of formation of a common identity between Iranian and Arab, that a kind of other-construction causes the lack of common sense about safety between Iran and these countries- this has a very important role in the continuing divergence between Iranians and the Arabs. To sum up, Abu Dhabi authorities claimed the ownership of these islands after their independence, while Iranians had recaptured it before their independence. These claims had been subsided in 1992, but they were resumed due to some of geo-cultural challenges of UAE. The political system of UAE was led to a kind of identity constructivism by some challenges as: non-coherent political system and internal dispute; lack of cultural continuity and ethnic and religious heterogeneity, the lack of common historical context and the need to identify common political identity in the domestic and international arenas; to achieve the reasons of development and increase in nationalism and nation-building in the UAE and identifying political identity in foreign relations.Based on constructivism view, that expresses the claim to the land, sovereignty and national identity is consisted with "cultural ideals" and "reconstructing identity", the UAE's policy in following their claims on islands of Iran can be analyzed as an attempt in reconstructing its historical-cultural identity. Because identity-building is closely tied with the reason for creation of this country and express "occupation of these three islands by Iran" and repeating the claim of "UAE islands" and "attempts to retaking it" are considered as attempts towards exciting public opinion, expressing the reason of the development of this government in order to revival and strengthening national identity and promoting nationalism and required identity for national governance formation.Abu Dhabi authorities also tries to attract the sympathy of other Arab countries against Iran, to build identity in international arena by making enemy and to advertise political stability against Iran and to redefine national interests by achieving political identity in the Arab's World.UAE's performance from a constructivism view is not a kind of Arabic nationalism that lack deep innovations. The reasons are as follows:1.Suffering from lack of strategic depth;2.UAE follows identity-making. Although such efforts can be successful in identity-building and in having a conception of otherness and enemy, but it can not be defined as a modern nationalism.

The term Frontier demarcate the relative limit of political-space territory unites in pre-Westphalia era and the word boundary shows the exact and official limit of land area of modern states. Limitation of the size of historical, political- spatial units depends on period of time and ruling political, economic and social structures. Toponymy is a knowledge that studies geographical names. This knowledge reveals many hidden facts and historical, social, linguistic and geographical events which were vanished and just a name remained. Hence, it is linked strongly to geography, history and linguistics sciences, and has entered in the area of issues related to identity over the past few decades. This article focuses on determining the frontiers of Iran in Ferdowsi¬'s Shahnameh. Since Shahnameh is an epic work, it does not have temporal and spatial nature. So, its Content analysis could be done based on word frontier which requires the use of knowledge of Toponymy. The research methodology adopted here is descriptive-analytic, and data gathering procedure is based on library findings. Due to the variety of sources used in writing Shahnameh and constant changes in places’ and individuals names, analysis of location and geographic arena of Iranian historical and cultural structures in Shahnameh is difficult. Shahnameh narratives are not temporal and spatial like other national epics since transparency of time and place is more storied and mythological events will be near to history and will decreases the value of their epic. Ferdowsi by reliance on historical sources and concepts like:" Shah Jahan", "Haft keshvar" and "Iranshahr" somehow has demonstrated Iranian sovereignty over the world and its center. This article is based on the assumption that Toponymy in Shahnameh on the one hand reflects geographic Iranvij names in Avesta as a source of Shahnameh codification and on the other hand shows the efforts made during Sassanid era to adapt mythological toponymies of Avesta with Geographical realities of Iran plateau. Also, Shahnameh is not necessarily a pure geographical-historical work and it is related to the thought of ferdowsi and the resources he used. Ferdowsi in Shahnameh has not directly paid attention to the delimitation of geographical Iran, but indirectly investigated Iran's Historical and cultural borders according to political and historical events on both global and Iranian scale has.

Geographical names reflect the culture, events and ideas of the people living in different units, and they can be discovered as a key benefit of historical facts. Properly recording and collecting geographical names along with their historical backgrounds should be done properly. Because these names can be used as a tool to foster political sovereignty and national integrity, the ideology of the past political powers is revealed. Residents of the same political unit consider themselves to belong to a unit that has a specific name. Therefore, the more heterogeneity of these names and their changes with the cultural and social relations in the region, the merrier integrity among the region's residents will follow. Rather, this leads to national unity and integration. This study aims to explore, extract and analysis of geographical including the provinces, cities, countries and districts names which are changed after the Islamic Revolution. The research method is based on descriptive-analytical method. In this article, maps and charts are respectively provided using Arc Map and EXCEL. Results Research findings suggest that changes in names are due to the change in the administrative divisions like promotion, abstraction, and integration and any change in the range of political units. It should be noted that geographical distribution of most changes was in the Mazandaran, Kurdistan, and Fars provinces, respectively.

Sanctions are set of measures that can be used to punish a party to persuade it to stop or perform the desired action. The aim of the sanctions is very different. In the past, mainly sanctions were applied in the form of unilateral and in some cases as multilateral, but after World War I and the establishment of the League of Nations, sanctions are considered for global peace and security, and also was changed in addition the breadth of participants, including members of the League of Nations and even it was as successful in some cases.After World War II and the establishment of United Nations, the implementation of sanctions were considered by approval of the UN Security Council and all Member States are also required to implement and comply with its provisions, which increases the efficiency and the success of UN sanctions.UN sanctions until the late twentieth century mostly were in the form of non-targeted, like a public punishment, was applied to all people and sectors of the country that suffer innocent people which made its performance and success poor. To solve this problem, the strategy of targeted sanctions is followed. The aim of this kind of sanction is that, as much as possible target only aimed sections and in some cases the leaders and those who are responsible for specific measures in the country. Security Council sanctions against Iran, because of its nuclear activities are started in 2006 and by 2010, six resolutions in this regard was issued and over the time caused some problems in different sectors and the power and national survival factors.This paper aims to study the impact of sanctions on the basis of national power theoretically and also the effects of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran over its elements of national power. The descriptive analytical method is used in this study and data collection was through documents and internet resources. Data analysis is qualitative and content analysis was performed. According to the UN resolutions concerning Iran's nuclear activities, sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council against Iran are in category of arms, financial and travel ban of individuals involved in nuclear and missile industries. Although these sanctions are far from comprehensive sanctions, but their impacts to the community are palpable and they have negative effects even on unsanctioned sectors such as health care and most elements of national power, such as economy, the environment, the efficiency of the political system, science and technology, society and culture, military affairs, and even cross-border affairs.This research has examined the impact of sanctions on Iran's national power, over the past decade. The results show that although in cases that sanctions have been applied as targeted, they directly targeting the roots and foundations of national power, but indirectly also hit other unsanctioned parts of the country.

Interodaction: Nowadays one of the important travelling aims is improving health and travelling to the health tourism destination in order to use hot water springs is growing rapidly. Iran has many hot water springs which are located in rural area that attract many tourists. Providing tourists’ and residents’ safety is one of the key factors for success or failure in spa destination. Safety is the state of not being dangerous or harmful and it has three dimensions; physical, financial and behavioral. Risks that threaten the physical safety of tourist can have natural (firing, located in mountain region and etc) and anthropogenic (terror, crime and etc) origin. Behavioral safety indicates the residents ‘emotion and behavior with tourist in the destination, and tourist has behavioral safety when the residents’ behavior with her/him is friendly, helpful and without any selfish, and there is positive interaction between tourist and host. Cultural issues and differences between host and tourist are the factors affecting the behavioral safety of tourist. Using drugs is another behavioral risk. Empirical research showed that risk perception (such as illness and food insecurity) can affect the travel decision making. However, tourists’ safety issues in each destination are different. Therefore, the aim of this paper is spatial investigation of the health tourists’ safety in rural spa destination in Iran. All rural spa tourists are the research population, and 384 tourists were selected as sample by cluster sampling method across 16 villages in 8 geographical regions in Iran. Research The results showed that health tourists are generally safe in Iran but the level of safety and its dimensions in the studied regions were not as the same. In the North-West, West, Central and North-East of the country, tourists had moderate safety in all the safety dimensions. Whereas, the lowest level of health tourism safety was in South-East and South-West regions of Iran. In general, the main threats to the health tourism safety in the studied regions of Iran and their solutions are: South-East region: the presence of wicked people and terrorism, distribution and consumption of drugs were the main threats. In this region due to neighboring with Afghanistan and Pakistan, there is a wave of insecurity and feeling fear for the residents and consequently its tourists. Because Iran has a long border with Pakistan, the Pakistani security policies should be strengthened and cooperation between the two countries for improving security is needed.South-West region: crime, street fights are the main threats of health tourists’ safety. Robbery and assaulting are the main crimes in Boushehr province. Promotion of the civil culture is the effective preventive strategies to reduce the number of robberies and assaults. So, the public media can play an important role in this issue. Some actions such as identifying the high risk places in health tourism destinations, providing lighting and increasing working hours of public transportation can reduce robberies and assaults. Also, timely presence of police at the crime scene and arrest the culprit will be effective.North region: unexpected extra cost is the main infraction that threatens the financial safety of health tourists in this region. The tourism services’ prices in the high season are strongly increased. The reasons of the increase in tourism costs are shortage of goods and services in the short term as well as the lack of monitoring system. Therefore, it’s necessary that the tourists’ demand is estimated and the supply of goods is increased proportionally.South Region: the most important risk of financial safety is theft. Theft is 93% of crime in Hormozgan. The most theft happens in marginal areas of the city, quiet neighborhoods and streets with low traffic at midnight. The main reason of theft is lack of anti-theft systems on the cars. Informing to tourists about the necessity of installing security systems on their car, parking the cars in lighting places in the night, avoiding left valuable objects and documents inside the car can be reduce these crimes.