فصلنامه روابط خارجی
پیاپی 20 (زمستان 1392)

Revolutionary developments in Egypt in February 2011 paved the way for a transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one. These developments revealed that a coalition of protestors had been shaped over class and ideological considerations. They rallied to express their political and economic dissatisfaction under the slogans "Bread, Freedom and Justice" and "Bread, Freedom and National Dignity". Now, after the passage of two years from Egyptian revolution, the transition period in this country is facing extensive economic challenges and any neglect in addressing them could hurt the flagellant democracy in Egypt. Given this fact, the question is how the Arab Republic of Egypt could manage to bring simultaneously economic and political transitions to an end in a successful manner. To show this, the authors study the economic situation of Egypt both before and after recent developments and finally, by studying different scenarios, they show that how challenges facing the dual transition could make likely the reproduction of authoritarianism.

Islam and politics have been always two intertwined and complementary concepts and no Islamic current could be a representative of a non-political discourse. Drawing upon the categorization developed by Weber, Niebuhr and Wallis in regard to religious movements, this article tries to define relation between Islamic currents and politics. It also uses concepts such as wisdom, violence and ideology to show the intellectual, value and functional diversity among different Islamic currents regarding the political function of religion, thereby an absolute, essentialist and integrationist view on political Islam is an incorrect interpretation of this phenomenon, and in fact, we are facing different Islamic discourses. Meanwhile relation between these currents and modern political concepts has proceeded in a non-linear manner rather than a linear one over time. Although, in new circumstances, the Islamic world like Western Christian societies has consented to a kind of diversity, it has not been able to transition to a stable state in terms of religious discourse and there is still a harsh competition among Islamic discourses for dominating the society.

During the twentieth century, especially with the introduction of globalization era, preoccupation with economic growth and development has played a great role in shaping the foreign policy of countries, so that foreign policy has become a key arena for implementing the modernization and development project. Among less developed countries, two main strategies have been applied for realizing economic development: import substitution and export expansion. Each strategy has its own impact on foreign policy as required by its foundations and purposes. Studying about the link between development considerations and foreign policy in Turkey is very enlightening. Whenever Turkey has resorted to export expansion strategy, especially during the 1980s and the decade after coming to power of Justice and Development Party, it has shifted towards confidence-building and improvement its external relations (particularly towards the West). This approves the idea of correlation between economic development and peaceful foreign policy.

Recent movements in the Middle East and North Africa which began from Tunisia have brought about regime change in some Arab countries. Along these lines and with the beginning of events, different influential regional and extra-regional actors have adopted different orientations towards these events according to their own interests and strategies. This article advances the question that how two important regional countries, namely the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey shaped their respective attitudes toward developments in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya (where revolution led to regime change). In a comparative study, the hypothesis of this article is that the Islamic Republic of Iran has reacted to these events on the basis of criteria such as opposition to the domination of the U.S. over the region, enmity with Israel, supporting Palestinian cause, and making effort to bringing like-minded Islamist regime to power in the region to serve the realization of its goals in shaping a new regional system consistent with its regional and international policies. On the other hand, Turkey took its stance towards these developments on the basis of its goals and objectives such as preserving and increasing its economic interests, and presenting its political system as a model to follow by the new regimes in order to create a wide regional political alliance serving its ambitions to obtain the status of a regional hegemon.

Islamist political currents have been always acted as powerful political and social players in Algerian society. Their activities have undergone many ups and downs during the past seven decades. This article aims at answering the question that how we can describe the new alignment of Islamist group in recent years, especially following the Algeria's civil war occurred after the oppression of Islamic Salvation Front. To answer the question, the authors, first, review factors leading to the formation of Islamist political currents in Algeria and the developments of this movement. Then, they study the new alignment of Islamist currents in this country by using a descriptive method. According to findings of this article, following the dissolution of Islamic Salvation Front and the elimination of radical groups, some moderate Islamist groups emerged in Algeria's political scene that can only be differentiated by their political tactics. However, all of them emphasize peaceful political strategy.

The political economy and strategic necessities of the United States as an axis of the world economy and security have been affected by social forces, productive sources and management models of the crises emerged in the region. Although, the US Congress has ratified several bills concerning the anti-Iran sanctions, the way for these sanctions to be put into effect depends on several factors, including world economic necessities. The United States, the European Union as well as other Western industrial countries have so far provided many different approaches concerning the way and means of curbing Iran's strategic capabilities. Meanwhile, Iran's economy is regarded as a part of world economy. Under such circumstances, the US restrictions imposed on the regional states and the international system, are generally regulated on the basis of the world economic needs. Requirements as such are mostly regarded essential in decision making of the industrial countries in dealing with regional players such as Iran. In this article restricting Iran through economic sanctions, controlling its energy exports and financial exchanges are assumed as dependent variables, while fluctuations in oil prices during economic recession, world markets situation, and military confrontations are regarded as factors having impact on models for anti-Iran sanctions.

Given China's rising power, its attitude and behavior towards existing world order has become a subject of debate. The question is that whether China's compliance with existing rules, norm and institutions since 1979 is transitory and tactical or it constitutes a long-term and strategic policy. Drawing upon dependency theory, this article argues that contrary to the expectations and analyses of experts influenced by offensive realism, China's integration into existing international order has made the interests of this country more consistent with those of other countries including the U.S. This would mean that China has become an actor supporting status quo, as a result, it could be said that its revisionist policy, in general, has become too much weakened.

The theory of balance of power is one of the most important theories on structuring international politics. The "status'" and "role" of great powers in establishing, sustaining and even shaking order in international social life have been brought into attention by different theories including the theory of power transition and balance of power. The theory of balance of power claims that current models in the international politics are shaped based on the logic of balancing. Increase in power shapes strategic actions made by major international actors leading to stability and change in the international system. As a result, the factor of "rising power" finds an important role in research projects. Under current international circumstances, China's "rising power" is considered the most important topic in the international politics. China's rising power is directly linked with the international US positioning and role making their strategic relations intertwined. Therefore, strategic interactions between China and the United States have become increasingly a key question within the international politics, which is stability and change in structuring international politics. This article addresses relations between these two powers in the post-cold war era. The author believes that the conceptual framework of the balance of power, as presented and developed by K. Waltz and J. Mearshiemer, is the most powerful in explaining strategic interactions between the two countries. For this reason, the author discusses the methods of US balancing against China and Chinese balancing against the US on that basis.