نشریه تحقیقات سیاسی و بین المللی
پیاپی 7 (تابستان 1390)

one of the most important events of the twentieth century was the collapse of the Soviet Union and its impact on the political, economic and ideological issues in the region and international level, which is still of importance. This paper presents a comparative analytical approach to understanding the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union and compares it with other empires of the twentieth century that have fallen. The author examines the views of Russian politicians like Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Gorbachev and Alexander Yakovlev and German scholars like Ulrich Druwe, Gerhard Simon and Helmut Altrichter to gain a comprehensive overview of the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The author examines the choices before Russia in case she wants to play an effective role in world affairs and he comes to the conclusion that for achieving the above goal Russia should integrate with European Union.

Some of the political observers and researchers consider federalism as an effective way for solving the problem of establishment of nation-state in societies which have multiple ethnic, religious and race structure. Iraq, being a multi-ethnic and religious country, on the basis of article four of the provisional constitution and article one of the permanent constitution chose federalism as its form of government in post Saddam era. In spite of these provisions, there still exists a problematic condition about the future of federalism in Iraq and the reason is due to certain innovations and ambiguities in Iraqi constitution and also legal and political problems about federation in that country.The present article examines these ambiguities and innovations. The article also shows that Iraqis have not used the positive experience of other federal systems. There also exist practical problems like geographical-territorial conditions, the problem of contending discourse about the place of Kurdistan in Iraqi political system. The above problems had led to a shaky position for Iraqi federalism and thus federalism is facing several challenges and problems.

Most of the countries which possess natural resources have revenue separate from taxes from the people and due to this revenue rent seeking and corruption is more prevalent than other countries. It seems that huge revenue earned from export of natural resources has increased the tendency of influential people to exploit these resources to their benefit and as a result they are creating a network of supporter-follower to seek rent. With the discovery of oil and turning into the main source of government revenue, the structure of the economy got a rentier shape and the state run economy along with concentration of revenue continued in a new form. The present article by a descriptive analytical method is trying to find the relation of oil rent with state run economy and its impact on political culture and social capital between 1989 and 2005(1368-1384 Iranian years). The finding of the study shows that oil rent has led to state capitalism and this has developed the political culture of supporter-follower and as a result weakened the social capital.

The present article examines the relations of Iran and Turkey from the time of coming into power of the Islamist party of Justice and Development in Turkey from 2002 till 2009. For this purpose the paper lays emphasis on variables such as the quest of the two country to become a regional power, the attitude of the two countries towards the Middle East, nuclear issue of Iran, the Kurdish problem in relations of the two countries, the important factors in expansion of the relations of the two countries, the impact of the United States and Israel relations with Turkey on Iran, the economic cooperation between the two countries and the interaction of these variable on each other. The question, which is raised by the article, is that, what are the factors contributing to integration and disintegration between Iran and Turkey?

The present article examines the definitions, basis, the requirement and the essentials of development. The intended concept of development is not a Western style, mystical, materialistic development but a fourth concept is examined which is related to Iranian and Islamic culture. In explaining this model it has been tried by a comparative look and also from the view point of social science the basis of Western style development be studied. In this study the above development styles are examined from a philosophical view point (epistemology, ontology, anthropology) ethical view point, religious, sociological, historical view points, subsequently the exact framework of this development model is explained. Next the paper refers to the requirement and essentials of development and gives suggestion and method to achieve this model.

Elections are one of the most important symbols of democracy in contemporary societies and it is the biggest sign of people’s presence for determing their political destiny. The elections in Iran with a century old precedent is now the biggest symbol for choosing one person as the highest executive post and the second highest person in the country. The analysis of elections behaviour as a political action has attracted the attention of political scientists and sociologist. In this regard, several theoratical frameworks have been offered but among them, the sociological model is having greater importance. In this model, more attention is paid to the role of social and cultural structures on political decisions. The present article wants to show the impact of traditional culture on voting behaviour in Haris election constituency. Besides that, the study examines other variables like social class, adherence to religious values, propaganda, gender, age and their role in determining political tendencies and behaviour. The type of research is developmental-applied and the methodology used is descriptive-analytical and fieldwork. The findings of the study are as follows: The people of Haris election constituency are under the influence of traditional culture like common language, common ethnicity which leads to a particular political behaviour. The above factors are very effective in their voting.There is a relation between the political behaviour of the voters in the election constituency of Haris and their belief in religious values. The voter’s behaviour is under the influence of religion and religious beliefs.Propaganda plays a minor role as compare to other factors in affecting the political behaviour of the voters. By studying the social economic and cultural conditions of the voters, one can come to know and predict the political orientation of them.

Cacusus region due to its strategic location being on the crossroad of east, west, north and south and locating between strategic heartland and rimland besides being in the neighbouring of Russia is having great importance. On the other hand, discovery of vast energy resources has attracted great powers attention to this region. The present article by a descriptive-analytical method wants to examine the political and economic development of Caucasus region after the end of Cold War. What impact does the geopolitical location of Caucasus region is having on the foreign policy of the countries of the region and the foreign policies of regional and supra-regional countries? The underlying hypothesis is that the discovery of energy sources in the Caucasus region and the importance of heartland and rimland region have led to the presence of new power and new games. Overall, it can be said that due to the presence of regional and supra-regional powers the Caucasus region is undergoing deep changes and development. The result of these development are: improvemnet of economic conditions, weakening of its political independence, increase of the importance of the region due to discovery of energy sources, economic growth due to attraction of foreign investment and reduction of ethnic and regional conflicts

The disintegration of the Soviet Union is one of the important events in the second half of the twentieth century and it had deep impact on the international arena at the world and regional level as well as the relations between different countries. The result of this disintegration is the birth of new republics in Central Asia and Caucasus. One of these republics is Azerbaijan Republic (Azerbaijan once gained independence between 1918-1920 but later was annexed to former Soviet Union). The policy of Iran towards the northern neighbours specially Azerbaijan is cooperation and active presence because the geopolitical position of Iran and its impact on the countries of the region have made it as a connecting bridge between two important region of the world, the Central Asia, Caucasus and the Persian Gulf region. On the other hand the presence of Turkey as a regional rival for Iran in Azerbaijan Republic has had negative impact on Iran achieving its objective in the region, particularly in Azerbaijan Republic. Turkey in its competition with Iran in Azerbaijan besides having commonalities is also enjoying the support of the United States. The present article is of the view that the success of Turkey in Azerbaijan Republic in competition with Iran is more due to the support of the United States and the opposition of that country to Iran. For explaining this issue, the theoretical framework of “agent-structure” has been used because the structure determines the freedom of the agents. Of course, those agents, which act in conformity with the structure, avail themselves of more opportunity and it also limits those agents who oppose the structure. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the structure is not absolute and one’s agent is structure for other. Thus opposing the strongest agent means opposing the structure. Therefore, playing the role of agent for the strongest agent (in this case the United States) becomes a structure for its opponents, this prevents its opponents in achieving their objectives, and on the other hand, it provides maximum benefits and opportunities for its supporters. For this reason, Turkey’s alliance with the United States has led to achievement of its goal in competition with Iran in Azerbaijan Republic.