نشریه مطالعات راهبردی جهان اسلام
سال دوازدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 45، بهار 1390)

This article examines extensive developments of Yemen in 2011 and seeks to explain the reasons and explores the transformation process which has been spreading since the fall of authoritarian rulers in Tunisia and Egypt in January and February 2011 in Yemen. Therefore, in an analytical framework, process of changes in Yemen and their causes are analyzed, and different reasons and roots of these transformations, specific features of Yemeni uprising, domestic actors, the role of foreign actors and the way of crisis management are examined. Time range of this article is 2011 and with exeeption of cases which refer to the past events for explaining a truth or incident, this focus has long been maintained.

Government of Bahrain and the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council with central leadership of Saudi Arabia, as the two main actors have tried to manage and control Bahrain's popular uprising. Bahrain Government considering various components that influence its behavior adopted different approaches towards the popular uprising. Al-Khalifa regime despite peaceful approach toward popular uprising in a period of time and some internal disagreements, finally adopted approach of widely violent suppression of protesters. Meanwhile, opposition groups did not have a unified approach towards the government. Also Persian Gulf Cooperation Council influenced by Saudi authorities and their particular attitude toward regional developments, especially Bahrain, supported al-Khalifa regime and suppressed the popular uprising. Despite some disagreements, members of the council had general consensus about these behaviors, but mostly arises from Saudis considerations about effect of Bahrain's popular uprising on its domestic issues, regional balance of regional power and similar factors.

War and aggression is a crime against international peace and security. What happened in Bahrain was not something other than military invasion of Al-Saud and its allies in shield of the island against territory of Bahrain. But the governments of Bahrain and its supporters have tried, with emphasizing on security cooperation in the framework of shield of island treaty or Bahrain government’s invitation of foreign forces, justify offensive military against Bahrain as non-invasive. Also from the viewpoint of international law, apparent violations of international human rights Bahrain are also another aspect of the researchable. We can call what happened in Bahrain crimes against humanity. Also this article examines dimensions of international human rights’ violations in Bahrain.

State sovereignty in different generations of traditional and modern international system has been the cornerstone of concept of establishing its political and legal order. In modern times, with the rising and falling of some international factors, particularly individual and collective human rights such as self-determination, this cornerstone has taken a different dignity and the process is going to adjusting the value and credibility at least toward the governments which consider existence and performance of this right as the meaning and philosophy of territorial integrity. What has emerged during the recent events and developments of Middle East and Arab world in 2011 in terms of confrontation of the nations with the central government, is revival of self-determination of nations like the wave that brought to knees colonialism in 1960s and 1970s. But whether this wave can always guarantee the interests of independent states and nations seeking for emancipation from dependency and foreign domination? What will be the result of "right of self-determination of nations" vs. "right of the ruling government"? This paper investigates this issue from the perspective of international law, particularly with considering the paradoxical and crawly relationship between these two rights which due to aforementioned developments have been away from the eyes.

Developing “sphere of influence” has been one of the important strategies for becoming great power in history of international relations. Today, this strategy has got so many changes due to the proliferation of nuclear weapons, polarization of the world during Cold War, incompetency of military power and increasing the importance of soft power through global boost of communications. Nonetheless, according to the present article, this strategy has been the principle way of transition from middle power to big power through considering more important factors like ideology, soft power, and even taking into account marginal influence. Therefore, it mainly has been articulated to answer this question: how can this strategy be used for becoming great power yet. In some parts, this article reviews historical trends and developments of "sphere of influence" as a necessary background of the current approach.

Azerbaijan geopolitically is the most important country of South Caucasus. Despite seventy years domination of communist and atheist system of Soviet Union, this Muslim country has kept Islam as the most important element of its identity. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of Azerbaijan, the conditions for the conversion of Islamic thought to political movement were provided. Meanwhile, Sunni Islamist currents stepped in the path of fundamentalism and radicalism, but 75 percent Shiite majority, moving away from religious radicalism and emphasising on "being modern" could become effective actors in political atmosphere of Azerbaijan. This paper in addition to avoiding descriptive-historical materials, describes circumstances and factors that directly have role and decisive impact on environmental environment of Shia Islamist currents and at the end position the expected situation will be described.