فصلنامه راهبرد دفاعی
پیاپی 31 (زمستان 1389)

Guided and goal-based progress of societies depends upon having following an indigenous model. Propounding the issue of the “Islamic-Iranian pattern of progress” by the Supreme Leader at the first forum of “Strategic Thoughts” shows its great importance. As a pre-eminent document، the pattern covers various dimensions and domains of life in the society، including the field of defence. Given the key standing and great significance of “defence” in the country، the field has a valuable and high status in the pattern of progress. Studying and designing an appropriate model to enhance and advance defence-related activities demand that due attention be paid to its theoretical requirements. In this writing، the authors seek to discuss the pillars، foundations، motivations and functions of the indigenous pattern for defence progress. The authors believe that a pattern of progress should describe “how” to achieve real progress and accordingly should introduce and explain the structures، processes and communications necessary for such an achievement.

It is a while that the issue of formulating the “Islamic-Iranian pattern of progress” has been brought up by the Supreme Leader. It appears that a national resolve is forming to produce a pre-eminent document compared to the 1404 (2016) “Outlook Plan،” which represents a pattern or a comprehensive roadmap for the development and progress of the country. With respect to the fact that the defence sector of the system should be given consideration besides its economic، social، cultural and political parts in the document، the military officials and authorities of the country’s defence and security establishment should also move in company with this national resolve and movement to help develop an appropriate defence pattern for progress and adequately consider all relevant features dimensions for designing a comprehensive and smart defence system. Having briefly reviewed the literature regarding the concepts of development، economic growth، and progress، this article will examine the concept and different dimensions of the “Islamic-Iranian pattern of progress” and introduce the necessities requirements to develop and implement it. I will also review the hierarchy and structure of developmental planning in the Islamic Republic of Iran، investigate the role of armed forces in formulating it، and finally offer a few guidelines and recommendations in due regard.

Defence diplomacy stands at the intersection of traditional functions in two separate spheres of “diplomacy” and “defence”، which has been developed in the contemporary era as a consequence of convergence and conjunction of epistemological and strategic issues and approaches. The term was also formulated and institutionalized in Iran in the 1380s (2000s) when it had started to develop and reconstruct its national defence capability.

Since 1990s, the world has witnessed the growing presence of China on the economic, political and security scenes. The vast range of China’s economic interests has inevitably tie the Chinese state to the global political and security issues, and as a result, its authorities have abandoned their traditional and Maoist thoughts, adopted a pragmatist approach to global affairs, and thus have sought to establish wider interactions with the international system by all means and methods including defence diplomacy. Given the importance of this issue and future prospects of the rise of China as a major global power in the coming decades, this article will try to elucidate the concept of defence diplomacy and then examine its place, forms and potential trends in the Chinese macro foreign policy orientation. Subsequently, China’s military relations with the United States, Russia, and other great powers as well as with its neighbouring regions including the Islamic Republic of Iran will be considered, and at the end significant characteristics of Chinese defence diplomacy will be outlined and recapped.

Defence diplomacy is one of those elements that play a decisive role in the general defence policy of countries. Having changed their defence policies from deterrence and territorial defence to participatory/collaborative and collective security, European states have enhanced the application of defence strategies in their foreign policy-making. Thus the object of European defence diplomacy consists in the use of democratic military forces to manage crises and resolve conflicts. This writing will endeavour at first to provide a theoretical explanation of defence diplomacy and examine the practical measures and functional aspects of European defence diplomacy during the 1990s, with special emphasis on the four categories of mutual military relations, reinvigoration of democratic processes, augmentation of the ability to act reciprocally, and provision of support for unchangeable security objectives. It will then consider the post-9/11 security threats and the resultant change in Europe’s security strategy from collaborative regional security to collaborative trans-regional security, and eventually will explore the European defence diplomacy in terms of NATO’s activities and EU “Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)” in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Power has always had an important role in shaping social relations throughout human history. Dominant geopolitical frameworks have been dependent for centuries upon environmental determinism and physical, hardware and objectivist aspects of power. In recent decades, however, dominant frameworks have been challenged as the emphasis has shifted on to other dimensions of power, namely its software and subjectivist aspects and also to smart power. The latest theories of geopolitics seek to move beyond purely determinist and positivist thoughts and exploit new concepts, or those borrowed from other sciences, in order to explain and elaborate geopolitical conceptions and phenomena including the concept of power itself.The need to help the country’s foreign policy to secure its vital national interests as well as the aspiration to utilize all available capacities and employ principles of diplomacy at the service of defence functions, particularly protection of the country’s territorial integrity, have highlighted the role of this two-sided and reciprocal trend in synergizing its defence and foreign policies. This article will examine the issue of defence diplomacy in terms of understanding its foundations, levels and functions in the defence approach of states, and discuss the requirements to reinforce the trend of development and systematic management of the country’s defence diplomacy.

Turkey’s agreement with the NATO expansion scheme at the Lisbon summit has marked the beginning of a new stage for United States efforts to develop and expand missile defence systems in the Middle East. Formerly, the US had taken a series of measures to boost the regional countries’ air defence capabilities so as to confront what it usually called missile threats from certain states in the Middle East. Selling Patriot air defence systems to four Arab states of the Persian Gulf and supplying the Zionist regime with “X-Band” radars and other air defence equipment are clear examples of such measures. Nonetheless, following the change in the US defence policy during Obama administration and Turkish agreement with the NATO plan to establish missile defence shield systems in its soil, security circumstances in the region have change dramatically. Political and security dimensions of the US and NATO air defence plans in Turkey are more complex than those seen and experienced in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. This article aims to assess these developments with regard to the Islamic Republic of Iran security.