نشریه مطالعات سیاسی جهان اسلام
پیاپی 8 (زمستان 1392)

The mission of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Afghanistan is seen by many as a test of the alliance’s political will and military capabilities. The situation in Afghanistan has seen a rise in the overall level of violence due to increased Taliban military operations, an increase in terrorist-related activities, and recent major offensive operations conducted by the allies. In August 2003, NATO took control of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. At the time of the takeover, the mission was centered on Kabul. Today ISAF is leading the international operation in the whole of Afghanistan – known as Theatre Command –, and the mission has evolved to become the most complex NATO has ever been engaged in. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) faces serious obstacles: shoring up a weak government in Kabul; using military capabilities in a distant country with rugged terrain; and Rebuilding a country devastated by war and troubled by a resilient narcotics trade. As our major question, we try to evaluate the challenges faced NATO in Afghanistan for establishing the security during the past decade.

In a world, where globalization and industrial and technological progress are the most frequently heard voices, the Persian Gulf yet remains as an outstanding region for the most precious strategic reserves of the world. The Persian Gulf harbors as the biggest reserves of the world are a major center for the production of oil and natural gas of the world. Such an importance has turned the Persian Gulf region into a hotbed for international tension and the presence of big powers particularly the United States in the region has endangered the security of the Persian Gulf region. In the Middle East, the decade of globalization was marked by endless wars and continuing insecurity. Although, the increase in the flow of information and communication has served Muslim mobility but due to its ambiguity, globalization has created a contradictory and tension filled situation in the region. Unfortunately, the Persian Gulf region at domestic level is the source of clashes among governments, sectarian rivalries, Islamic fundamentalism, and internal instability. On the global scale, Globalization was ushered into the region by war which gave the Western powers an excessive power over the region. The intervention of foreign powers has fueled tensions in the region to a great extent. Hence, the process of globalization has proved highly turbulent and has generated new conflicts. Thus, a new plan is needed for the Persian Gulf region to weather the ongoing crisis and ensure its regional security in the future. The present paper, while reviewing the presence of the US in the region and the plans raised by this country, intends to design a new order for the Persian Gulf region so as to ensure its security.

The scientific development in today’s globalized environment calls for increasing interaction with scientific and technological centers. Scientific networks and networking with reliance on scientific and academic experts constitute one of the existing strategies to achieve this objective. Through the passage of history, Iran has had economic and cultural exchange with countries located in the Islamic world. Given the globalization of information and communication networks, the idea of enhancing scientific corporation among the said countries can be presented in order to create synergy for generating and developing science and technology. In this paper an attempt has been made to introduce strategic and tools for creating inter-geographical synergy from a theoretical point of view. Science diplomacy has been discussed as a suitable tool for networking among the scientific communities of Iran and Islamic world. This paper also proposes some other strategies to achieve science diplomacy.

Revolutionary movements which began in Tunis in 2010 immediately impressed all Arab countries. These movements have led to many essential changes in the Middle East. So far, four presidents have been ousted from power. Revolutionary forces in the Arab world to achieve their goals used media. So the media played a large role in the revolutionary changes in the Arab countries. Given the media''s role in revolutionary movements in the Arab countries, in some of the reviews these revolutions have called as media revolutions. Based on these reviews the media are the main cause of revolutions in the Arab countries. But the main question is: What is the media''s role in the revolutions in the Arab countries? Were they really the cause of these revolutions? The study of developments in the Arab countries shows that the media had an important role in the revolutions, but they were not the cause of revolutions. The media helped to spread revolution in the Arab countries and contributed to create the faster victory for revolutionary forces, but they did not cause of revolutions. In this paper effective factors in the revolutionary movements in the Arab countries is explained and the role of media is described. Paper concludes social and political factors created the revolutionary movements in the Arab world, and the media have had an auxiliary role and have acted just as catalyzer.

Neo-Ottomanism in recent decades has been among the most controversial political debates in related academies and literature. Frequent references to it by Turkish officials in recent years, multiplied its importance in international relations. The term obviously owes its significance to the Ottoman Empire Era, and accordingly, a sufficient analysis on the challenges of the Empire during its last decades stands prior to any attempts to understand Neo-Ottomanism. The paper thus, aims at analysing the precautions and countermeasures taken by Ottomans against the western political, economic and cultural impacts. According to the results of the analysis, these countermeasures compose major Identity elements, i.e. Being, Muslim, Turk and Modern, embraced and developed by Neo-Ottomanists in Turkey.

In a view to the local, regional and international developmental and globalization of Culture, The ground is now paved for expansion of Cultural ties of the I. R of Iran with other Countries, particularly the Islamic ones in variety of arenas. However, What is needed for Strategic planning of the Cultural activities at Islamic World is an appropriate assessments of the Cultural activities of Iran, by posing the questions of «how and by which indicators are the Cultural activities of Iran assessed in the Islamic World” and “In this vein, the major question of this article is: What are the strengths and weakness, opportunities and challenges of the cultural activities of the I. R. of Iran for an active interaction with the Islamic world including countries, nations and Islamic organizations as well as Muslim minorities?”, This paper comes to the following Since coordination of Cultural activities abroad and their implementation process requires the adoption of strategies and prevention of parallel works, accurate assessment of the cultural activities and identification of threats and opportunities facing the I. R of Iran, along with its strength and shortcoming the national interests and goals of the country in the Muslim World. In fact, by implementing the appropriate cultural strategies within the Islamic World and strategic planning and management in the light of cultural diplomacy, while enjoying cultural empowerment, Iran will have the potential to turn into a big cultural power in the realm of the Islamic World.

Policy implementation is among the most important Stages in the policy cycle (Lester et al., 2000:5). Policy-makers know well that this stage is so essential that can affect all aspects of politics in local, national and international levels. Despite this fact, policies implemented do not have often the desired results. This article tries to analyze this phenomenon in the Islamic states using an integrator pattern, combining the triangles of Etzioni and hirshman.

Anti-minority prejudice is a general anomalous phenomenon in Europe. Several empirical studies have shown that anti-Muslim discrimination is more serious and profound. The Muslim community is the most important minority in Europe. The question is whether racism is the reason for the social discrimination against Muslims in Europe. In this paper, to explain the areas of discrimination it is divided into: «underlying reasons» and «driving reasons». Anti-Muslim discrimination in Europe is a result of the background of various forms of racism in Europe (as a precedent cultural background) and is the effect of political opportunism (as a new phenomenon). Discrimination required certain objective conditions of existence to be in place. Political opportunism is the stimulus of anti-Muslim discrimination. The political and economic interest of some political groups in Western culture, led to anti-Muslim discrimination in Europe.

The present article entitled «Russification and the Political Colonizationof Transoxiana in Tsarid Era» is investigating the process of integrating Turkistan to Tsar Empire and the way of governing the dominated district through descriptive research. After the victory of Russians over Crimea and stopping the war in the western front, Russians proceeded to the east in order to overcome India, the vital vein of England and to restore the national pride as well. Thus, carrying the motto of bestowing civilization to Muslims and through Eurasianism policy, Russians headed for Transoxiana and after the demolishing of the old medieval Khanate, enclosed a major part of the area to Russia and called it the Russian Turkistan. Exertion the colonizing policies after the military advance in order to bring forward the land and its people to Russia, is of great importance which is going to be discussed in the article.