نشریه تحقیقات سیاسی و بین المللی
پیاپی 1 (زمستان 1388)

The Islamic revolution is one of the most important events of the twentieth century. The content and type of this revolution has ever since been the topic of discussion in academic, social and political circles. Regarding the Islamic revolution it should be said that this revolution like other revolutions did not limit itself to Iranian borders and directly and indirectly affected the international developments. The Islamic revolution due to its specific nature has had its own concepts, norms and particular consequences. The present article by making use of constructive theory framework intends to examine the impact of Islamic Revolution on Latin America. It also intends to study the relations between Iran and Latin American region to which, so far, less attention has been paid.

Most doctrines and developments in the West, in one way or the other have their roots in renaissance period. In fact after renaissance the thought structure, thinking in general and European world views were based on rationalism, materialism and the present world. One of the phenomena which also was influenced from renaissance was feminism. Feminism is a school of thought which believes in the equality of men and women's rights in political, social, economic aspects. According to feminism, considering women as second class citizens and inferior to men from the beginning of the history is due to men’s ontological consideration. This wrong view of men at women has caused considerable oppression and damage to women. The supporters of women in most countries including Iran tried to change this outlook. Before the Islamic revolution in Iran, the feminist succeeded in implementing some of their programme. After the occurrence of Islamic revolution, the constitution was framed on the basis of Islamic and religious principles. Naturally in this atmosphere feminism has been considered as a Western and anti-religious doctrine. The present article attempts to explain the history of feminism and feminist outlook. The question which is raised by this article is as follow: What has been the development of feminism in Iran and its achievements?From the view point of this article due to dominant culture after the Islamic revolution and the attitude towards the role of women in society a favourable atmosphere has been created for the entry of women in society. As a result women’s participation and presence in public and their efforts to get important managerial posts and positions have yielded fruits and one can see women as ministers, deputy ministers and members of parliament.

The present article intends to examine the slogasn of justice seeking in content and text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Ashoora movement. In this direction three basic concepts i.e. justice, principles and instances of justice seeking are studied. The underlying hypothesis is that if we merely accept justice seeking is having its base and essence in human nature and is always a desired ideal and has been sought by men yet this does not mean that there is a consensus among all the people about justice and its concept because on one side the minimum manifestation of this natural principle does not show such thing. On the other hand although justice and rights have always come together but the conjunction of these two concepts in a form which reflected in the declaration of human rights does not have a long history. The concept of equality, justice and right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are generally objectives of subjective interpretation where as in religious tradition and Ashoora school of thought these two concepts are inseparable from each other and they (justice and rights) do not exist apart from reality. Thus theoretically, justice in religious tradition has been closely related to human intelligence. From the point of view of practice there has existed a strong relationship between justice and human feelings and emotions. It has overcome the totality of human existence.

In the age of globalization information and communication technology have developed extensively and its growth has led to spread of a large volume of data and information with great variety. Among these media, internet, satellite networks and television channels have had tremendous effects on societies. The Arab world, despite considerable progress in the field of internet and television coverage, establishing media towns in United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and other Arab countries, removing subjective and objective obstacles on the way, is still having a long way ahead to set right the communication and media infrastructure gap. This communication gap will hinder their way to reach an ideal position and be able to adjust them with the pace of new developments. The present article while explaining the position of media and internet in Arab countries tries to examines the most important obstacles and challenges in the field of media before the Arab world. One important fact which is to be remembered is that the wide wave of information and propaganda which reaches the developing Arab world population through Western communication networks and programmes contain both useful and harmful contents. The useful part is making use of scientific information and the harmful part is negative and destructive propaganda, secular and unethical teachings, anti-Islamic propaganda and colonial objectives. Thus, the developing world and in particular the Arab world should cautiously accept the good aspects of these programme and repulse the unethical and harmful aspects of the so called "Western cultural invasion". In present world the developing and developed countries need to cooperate and exchange information in order to progress. On the one hand contacts with the world and Western countries are necessary and inevitable but this contact should be balanced and sound and mutually beneficial. Today due to globalization phenomenon and the nature of new communications which is all pervasive and transcend the geographical borders the foreign ideas and thinking penetrate every home through satellite networks and media. On the other hand it is to be remembered that the information technologies have provided avenues and opportunities for educated people and elite to present their views and thoughts. Therefore, it is the right time for cultural adjustment. The Arab governments while planning suitable programmes to face the new situation should take the help of national elite to confront cultural invasions.

From the time that the West and Christian Europe defined a specific identity for itself there arose the need to define the East as its opposite. The West tried to define itself in confrontation with the East. In other words the East was the rival which the West tried to distance itself from it in order to find a specific identity. The West therefore, tried to define and explain the East in such a way as to show itself different and in contrast with it. In this direction oriental studies in the West took shape to show that the East is different from the West. Oreintalism is an important discipline which took shape in the new era and its aim was not mere knowledge and understanding the East. Its aim and objective was rather making an identity for Europe against "others". The East, as a different and distinguished experience has helped Europe to have and independent identity. The East has been complementary and an indicator for European culture and civilization. The West's oriental studies are also the expression of cultural and ideological view of the West and therefore a Western dialogue about the East. Oriental studies can therefore be interpreted in the framework of East-West confrontation. The views expressed by them about the Eastern people and in particular the Muslims on many occasions have come under criticism by the Eastern thinkers. The questions which arise now are what is orientalism and how the West knows the East? What has been the confrontation of the West with Islam? It is obvious that the East has had an ancient and deep culture and civilization. Therefore the West while laying the foundation of its culture and development by its so called research and oriental studies tried to belittle and degrade the culture of the East and consider it primitive. The West wants to infuse this belief that its approach and perception towards nature and world problems are objective and empirical while the East views are poetical and imaginary and they are basically backward and traditionalist. By this argument the West wants to prove that the East will not be able to progress and will lag behind the pace of civilization. In their view if the East wants to advance it should follow and emulate the Western model of progress and development. These views coincided with the West invasion of the Eastern territories. As a colonial power they plundered the culture and civilization of the East and behind their action was a political and ideological motive. The confrontation of the West with Islam has had colonial and exploitative motives rather than political. The Western encounter with Islam is based on subjective and objective thinking that they themselves have created. Thus the understanding and knowledge that the West is having about the East and Islam is devoid of evolutionary values of the East and the deep belief of Muslims in religion.

Iran and Egypt as two important and effective actors in the Middle East region have interacted with each other since olden times and have played a significant role in peace and stability in the Islamic World. However, after the occurrence of Islamic revolution in Iran the relations between the two were considerably strained. In recent decade also one has observed great ups and downs in relations between the two. The question which arises here is that what historical and structural factors led to confrontation between Iran and Egypt and impeded restoration of full diplomatic relations between the two? The present article tries to study the structural challenges in relations between Iran and Egypt, particularly the contradictory security approach of the two countries towards regional issues and the impact of the influence of extra-regional powers on their relations. Despite the existing tensions in relations of the two countries (due to structural problems and influence of the extra-regional power) the article explains the potentials of cooperation between the two on different levels and offers a prospect of their future relations.

Security is considered as one of the important problems after the fall of Taliban.Since the development in Afghanistan is very vital for the United States foreign policy and NATO, the success or failure in that country is very important for the US prestige in international arena. So it will not be an exaggeration if it is said that the security of Afghanistan is a major international issue. The problem in Afghanistan is that in spite of the presence of many factors which disturbs the security like activities of rebel groups, terrorism, transition from a long period of instability to a stable period, the proper security organization to face the above challenges have not taken shape. It is therefore, seems that the pre-condition for having security is to overcome the weakness prevailing in the structure of the security and law enforcing agencies. The present article while describing the position of the existing security organizations suggests way to rectify the structure of law enforcing organization and improve the security and law and order situation.

The presence of extra-regional powers in the Middle East and their impact on the quality of security order of the region is one of the important issues which have attracted the attention of the observers. Since World War II till date the United States has been an important player which has actively intervened in the region and has had a determining role in its security structure. In this direction the United States has recently tried to expand NATO's sphere of operation toward the Middle East region by admitting new partners and collaborators. The present article is of the view that this strategic behaviour of the Untied States is within the objectives of security framework of that country. These objectives can be enumerated as follow: expansion of its sphere of influence and hegemony in the region, confrontation and containment of the growing power of the Islamic Republic of Iran, helping normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries by participating them in NATO's programme and organs, accelerating process of reforms in the Middle East, fighting against Islamic fundamentalism and radicalism and terrorist activities emanating from it, ensuring the security of energy resources and their safe transfer to the United States and its allies and providing support for pro-West Arab governments. These measures have been welcomed by Israel and pro-Western Arabs and will have important effects on the security of the Middle East and will make NATO a significant Middle East player. It is true that NATO's main objective is facing international threats to peace and security and in this way it can ensure the Middle East's stability but NATO being a Western security organization will facilitate the objectives of the United States and its allies and therefore, it can be said that the presence of NATO in the Middle East will have adverse effect on security interests of Iran.