نشریه مطالعات خاورمیانه
سال بیست و نهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 110، زمستان 1401)

The traditional Iranian state experienced decline and decay during the late Qajar period, and its continuity was not possible. After that, the institution of state underwent transformations throughout various historical periods, and this process continued until the Islamic Republic era. The main question in this article is what are the institutional foundations of the state in the Islamic Republic of Iran? Our hypothesis, based on the historical institutionalism approach, is that the institutional foundations of the state in Iran today are influenced by the institutional heritage of the traditional state ment, the institutional transformation of the state in the critical juncture of the constitutional revolution, the dependence on the oil path in the Pahlavi period, and the institutional transformation of the state in the critical juncture of the 1979 revolution. As a result, the state in Iran after the revolution has combined various elements of the traditional state, the constitutional state, and the Islamic state. The elements that have been combined in an incompatible mixture have different epistemological foundations and historical roots, and therefore, have caused internal conflicts within the state structure. In the present study, a novel theoretical configuration called the “Monticore State” was introduced to explain the unique nature of the state in the Islamic Revolution. On this basis, understanding the internal logic of the state, the formation and perpetuation of macro-scale policies in various areas, and, consequently, the pathology of governance in the Islamic Republic requires understanding the Monticore nature of the state, its institutional legacy, and its historical roots.

Drones have been visible in the Middle East military conflicts more than any other region of the world. Particular characteristics of drones in the battlefields including simplicity, affordability, difficulty in downing them and the possibility of inflicting heavy damages have led to the rise of a peril that the military balance in the Middle East might be disrupted. The basis of this military balance within the last five decades involved the consolidation of Israel’s place as the superior regional military power thanks to its unrivaled air force, restricting and controlling other regional countries’ search for air warfare resources and ballistic and cruise missiles, controlling the updating and supplying parts and ammunitions for fighters as a guarantee on the behavior of allies and making efforts at turning the allies’ strategy a defensive one through maintaining military balance in the air warfare sphere, which was precisely pursued by the United States in the Middle East. Nonetheless, the drone revolution in the Middle East formed by new actors from Turkiye and Iran and any other state to non-state paramilitary groups have resulted in the formation of new strategic issues and trends in the region. This includes challenges posed to Israel’s military position in air, diminished U.S. control over regional military trends, and weakened planning in the development of anti-missile and air defense systems.

The parliamentary and presidential elections of Turkiye on May 14, 2023 are one of the most sensitive political contests between the parties of this country in recent decades. The Justice and Development Party or AK Party, which has been in power since 2002, is facing rivals while the economic crisis has made the living conditions difficult for tens of millions of Turkish people. Also, criticisms such as ignoring freedom of speech have been raised, and in addition, the foreign policy of Erdogan's team has led to the practical stoppage of Turkiye's membership negotiations in the European Union. Therefore, it is expected that dissatisfaction with the inefficiency of the government's economic policies and criticism of Erdogan's governance style will have a direct effect on the election results. The six important parties of Turkiye, which have a diverse mix of discourses from secular and Kemalist to Islamist and liberal, are trying to gain power by forming an alliance group called "Etalafa Mellat" and they want remove Erdogan and Baghçeli's government. The coalition of the nation has been seriously organizing and campaigning for the past year, and the victory of this trend can transform politics and governance in Turkiye. Meanwhile, in the field of foreign policy, serious changes are expected. This research seeks to examine the most important possible scenarios regarding major changes in Turkiye's domestic and foreign policy in the post-election period.

Despite the fact that most of the recent debates about Türkiye’s military ambitions have focused on the capabilities of drones and how to use them in various security crises, its missile program, and its drivers and achievements have not been discussed in political and academic circles. By the same token, numerous test-firing of ballistic and cruise missiles is a reminder that Ankara possesses a remarkable arsenal of such missiles. It also indicates that it aims to expand and enhance that arsenal. Therefore, the gradual increase of Türkiye’s military power and technological advancement in the field of ballistic and cruise missiles, no matter what goals, perceptions and characteristics it highlights, raise new questions about the progress made in this field. On this basis, understanding the dynamics of Türkiye’s missile program and how this level of capability is related to the arms race in the Middle East, along with the lessons Ankara's elites have learned during crises such as the Ukraine war and the nature of modern battles, is a goal that this article will consider. It particularly focuses on its dimensions and reasons for the development of a new analytical framework.

The West Asian region can be named a regional system; The patterns of intra-regional and international relations in this region are fundamentally different from other regions of the world; This system has a series of norms, patterns of behaviour and fields of action that have been gradually and historically institutionalized due to the development of specific political, historical (legacy) and economic conditions; The unworkability of modern or so-called Westphalian nation-state in many countries under this system, the presence of floating/flux states, the decisive role of non-state actors and the existence of parallel spheres, the unique geopolitical position and the existence of enormous energy resources and oil and gas revenues, are among the characteristics of this system compared to other regions of the world. Using a descriptive and analytical method and taking a critical stance vis-a-vis Orientalist approaches, this paper seeks to examine the characteristics of West Asia as a regional system in which, historically, the activism of the native actors of the region plays an essential role in its formation.