فصلنامه پژوهش های راهبردی سیاست
پیاپی 12 (بهار 1394)

After the Islamic revolution and the rise of the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran over the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, a new wave of ideas and opinions entered Iran's foreign policy domain and the international relations structure. The principles and concepts of this revolution and the newly emerged political system are generally affected by Imam Khomeini's thought and action as an ideologue and a leader. This article questions the semiotic structure and articulatory system of Imam Khomeini’s foreign policy and about to give a descriptive framework for analyzing it. According to the hypothesis, from the writer's viewpoint, the articulating system of his foreign policy discourse is describable in a three-dimensional framework of ideology, strategy and diplomacy. Ideology beholds some principles and belief-related standards that generally nurture from Islam's revolutionary-critical source. Strategy involves the security-based calculations and the hardware policy. Moreover, diplomacy includes the accepted diagrams of conversation and negotiation for achieving national interests. The results of this discourse are represented in propositions that are based on concepts of the revolutionary-critical, pragmatic-realist, and prudent-modernist Islam.

With power succession of “justice and development” party in Turkey in 2002 the foreign policy of this country in regional and far regional relations has seriously changed. Before 2000 Turkeys foreign policy was far westernized and the government policy-making was west, specially US, oriented. But with rise of justice and development government in Turkey, the country’s foreign policy changed to a multidimensional pragmatic interest-based policy. one aspect of this policy modified foreign policy toward collaboration with neighbors in order to enhance Turkey’s role in the region including south Caucasus. This study tries to evaluate Turkey foreign policy in Caucasus and its conflicting interests with the two powerful countries of area – Iran and Russia. The main question of this study is concentrated on the Turkey’s Caucasian Policy and its affects on interests of Iran and Russia. The hypothesis of the paper is that new Turkey’s foreign policy in the region brought contradiction between the country and two abovementioned powerful neighbors.

The natures of international phenomena have shown that great powers، far beyond different kinds of rivalries، tend to stabilize equation of power in the international environment. With outbreak of the Syrian crisis، Signs of this type of relationship has been observed between Russia and the United States since 2011. The main features of these relations include concepts such as Encouragement، Containment، Withdraw، and Resolution Building. In this paper، we review the functions of each of these concepts trough the Modelski crisis management model. The question of the paper highlights the main strategy of the two major powers، Russia and the United States، towards the Syrian crisis. Results reveal that the two consider mutual interaction and international interests in crisis management measures. Hence، they approaching the pattern of competition and cooperation، remaining from the Cold War.

Cultural Iranophobia is a phenomenon that resembles the Persian Gulf countries’ fear of Iran’s identity and culture. This fear comes from an unreal presumption that they have given to Iran’s cultural components and foundations. According to this way of thinking, a system of meaning has been constructed in their view, that we can call it a “discourse”. This discourse consists of many elements like Shiism, Iranian nationality and the revolutionary nature. This phenomenon can have irreparable effects on Iran’s cultural image and landscape. It can also hinder Iran’s strategies and programs for extension of its culture to the regional and global cultural space. Hence, this research tries to analyze the role of culture in genesis of cultural Iranophobia in the Persian Gulf states and bring up the question about the the genesis of cultural Iranophobia in countries in Persian Gulf arena. The hypothesis of this research is that dualism between Arab and Ajam [non-Arab], intervention modeling and Conservative / revolutionary attitude are elements of Iranophobia in the Persian Gulf state; and these elements are intensified by Iran’s enemies and created a horrifying image from the Islamic Republic of Iran, so it will reduces Iran’s cultural relations.

Various theories about political phenomena are discussed on the basis of the subjective and objective characters. Phenomenology is one way to analyze the mentality, quality and specificity of political phenomena. Shiite and Sunni Islamic movements, according to their nature, have different understanding of religion. This can be caused by the perception of the environment and the ratio that defines in connection with the perception of spatial and temporal existence. Based on environmental perception, when Objective understanding of place replaced by its subjective perception, location emerging patterns are involved because they are effective in creating the sense of place. The hypothesis of the paper indicates that the time-place oriented idea of Shiite and Sunni Islamic movements in the Middle East formed their strategies in practice.

Regarding the geopolitical position and geographical features, Iran and Saudi Arabia can be considered as two important states in the region. From the early 1950s, the two started rivalries in the Persian Gulf region. Tension and conflict between the two countries rose, in the second Phalavi era, and because of the symmetry of the sphere of influence of the two, continuous level of tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been experienced. This rivalry, along with a number of material and ideological factors strained relations between Tehran and Riyadh. Iran, especially after the Islamic Revolution has influence among Muslim countries in the region, and the Shiite ideological orientation challenged Saudi Wahhabi ideology. Furthermore, ethnic ties and geopolitical competition in the region, with regard to the power and hegemonic matters, has increased tension between the two countries. This study, with analytical methodology is orchestrated according to the theory of Constructivism and attempts to examine the main causes of conflict in relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Results shows that the absence of common three concepts of "normativity", "images" and "identity" between Iran and Saudi Arabia, in addition to geopolitical-based competitions are a significant causes of tention in relations between Tehran and Riyadh.

Egypt’s foreign policy as an Arab, Islamic, African country and an influential actor in the Middle East has always been an important issue and its constitutive factors, changes, and continuities in the course of time have attracted students of foreign policy and the Middle East. This article explores the ways in which Sadat’s and Mubarak’s foreign policies were formed on the basis of their perceptions of Egypt’s national role. Within the analytical framework of Role Theory and by relying on process-tracing method in which causal sequence of events are examined, the article shows how the two presidents’ foreign policy differences can be explained by their different role perceptions. It is argued that while Sadat followed a Pharaonicist national role, Mubarak’s perception of national role was that of the guardian of Arabs’ solidarit.