javad etaat

The political organization of space in Iran has two dimensions. The first is the national divisions' system, and the second is constituencies. The national divisions’ system divides the country into provinces, cities, districts, and villages by the interior ministry. The executive branch plays a role in the territorial space according to these divisions. The second dimension is the territorially determined constituencies, where the competition for the representative seats is divided between many distinct regions. The details of these areas have an influential impact on the election outcome. In the Constitution of Iran, only Article 64 and Note 2 of Article 14 of the National Divisions are the only legal principles about electoral constituencies. Since the weight of indices is not definite in Article 64 of the Constitution, this caused many problems in determining the limits of constituencies. This research tries to identify these problems and provides an optimal model as a solution.

This research is an applied in terms of its purpose, and is descriptive-analytic in terms of methodology. The method of collecting information is a library data collection which includes the study and review of books and scientific articles, and documents (government bills, studies of the Islamic Parliament Research Center, and speeches of the parliament members), interviews, and statistical information. We use the AHP method and Expert Choice, SPSS, and GIS software to content analysis of the documents.

There are 208 constituencies In Iran, and the total number of representatives of the Islamic Consultative Assembly is 290. Using 2016 census data, the country's population is 79926270. There is one chair for every 280443 individuals. Given the fact that five seats are reserved for religious minorities, we divide the total population to 285 instead of 290 since it has no significant impact. Therefore, by dividing the country's total population by 285, the average number of representatives to the country's total population was calculated. By implementing the simple proportionality equation, the percentage deviation from the average of the constituencies has been calculated. According to the table and calculating their population deviation from the national average, demographic inequality in the constituencies was confirmed.

Conclusions :

  The constituency is the most apparent spatial manifestation of citizens' participation in political decision-making. The primary basis of power is formed in the relationship between spatial justice and Parliamentary electoral constituencies. This relationship deals with the participation of people in power through the election of representatives and is linked to electoral constituencies. The research findings showed that population inequality, non-compliance with the country's divisions, the number of cities and the large size of some constituencies, gerrymandering, competitions that have security aspects, and the absence of an independent institution of election constituencies are the most critical shortcomings of electoral constituencies in Iran. In order to reduce these problems, the optimal model of electoral districting in Iran needs fundamental changes to ensure its efficiency. These changes include a series of actions such as scenarios for redistributing representative seats in the provinces, attention to religious minorities, adaptation of the boundaries of constituencies with national divisions, territorial continuity, and determining the boundaries of constituencies in the provinces based on the importance of exploratory indicators.

Electoral system is a set of election implementation methods that by receiving citizens' votes. The rule of elites elected by the people to manage public affairs makes it an objective reality. In different countries, there are different electoral systems that have advantages and disadvantages. Some countries have tried to use the merits of two types of electoral systems by using combined and consolidated methods. Since the legislature in general political units consists of two parliaments. Some of these units use majority system for the first parliament and proportional system for the second parliament. Some also use two methods at the same time for one parliament. In countries that only use the majority method, Majority structure adjustment (which is ignorant of minorities) Political parties have been put in place to include minority candidates. In Iran, the legislature consists of a parliament and the election is a quarter of the election, To fix the existing defect, In this article, it is suggested that by amending the constitution, a legislative system will be formed from the first and second parliaments, so that while using the philosophy of the bicameral system, the electoral system of the first parliament will be considered by the majority method and the electoral system of the second parliament will be considered by the proportional method. In case of The rule of the unicameral legislative system. The elections of the first parliament should be conducted in a combined manner of two majoritarian and proportional systems to reduce the existing shortcomings to the minimum possible and accelerate national unity and solidarity in the process of sustainable development of the country.

Since the 1990s, a political turn called "political economy" has been visible in development studies. The main purpose of this turning was to pay attention to the political components and specific characteristics of each society. Over time, however, it becomes clear that this new approach has not been successful. In particular, this turning does not address the issue of change and how it is realized and continued as the most important issue of development. So many questions in this regard has remained unanswered. Accordingly, this article seeks to answer the reasons for this failure and how to complete this political turn by examining the theories and literature in this field in a qualitative manner. Our hypothesis in response to this question is that "the focus of the political economy approach on the proper design of institutions and incentives stems from a technical approach that ignores the difficult political process of their regulation. Emphasizing the role of the agent, power, ideas, and generally a deeper political analysis to explain change can provide the theoretical framework needed to pay attention to developmental leadership and complete this turn." The findings of this study showed that the use of new theories in the form of the third phase of institutionalism in development studies can provide the necessary contexts and tools to consider the role of political variables in development, especially the role of agency, institutional and political work.

The geopolitical competition between India on one hand and the China-Pakistan axis, on the other hand, have made various researchers investigate the different, unknown, and influential aspects of this competition. One of the fields that can influence the analysis of these competitions is political geography. Therefore, in the present research, the researchers have tried to create a new point of view regarding Iran's position in the geopolitical competition between China and India by relying on the sources and analyses that have been done by Indian authors and researchers regarding the issue of China-India competition and also Iran's position in this competition. The authors of this research adopted a meta-analytic approach to drive conclusions from the collected data. Authentic documents in books, scientific-research articles, reliable internet websites and important international news agencies were analyzed to collect the relevant data. The findings suggest that regarding geopolitical access, both China and India are persistently seeking to facilitate their connection to Eurasia through Iran and Pakistan and thus increase their geopolitical weight to enjoy a better position in world politics in the 21st century.

Although terrorism is considered a political phenomenon in nature and having political goals is one of its inherent characteristics; But terrorist groups usually pursue a variety of political goals, and the places and locations of attacks by these terrorist groups depending on the type and nature of the political objective pursued is different. What is certain is that the distribution and concentration of terrorist attacks on a global, national, and local scale is not accidental, and Several features are influential in this distribution pattern. In Iran, both spatially and temporally, there have been periods of frequency and concentration of terrorist attacks that can be called the wave of terrorist attacks. In some periods, terrorist attacks and the activities of terrorist groups were concentrated in parts of the country and in other periods it was relocated to other parts of Iran has been transferred. In periods also, terrorist attacks have intensified in several regions of the country over a period of time; therefore, this research investigates the answers to the following questions: “What spatial pattern has the terrorist attacks in Iran followed”?  and “what is the difference between how to distribute the attacks of different terrorist groups and their methods”?

The method used in this research is quantitative and using data from reputable global databases on terrorist attacks in Iran. also, Spatial distribution maps based on location-based data have been used to better understand the issues.

The first long wave of terrorist attacks in Iran began immediately after the victory of the Islamic Revolution and will continue until the end of 1982. During this 4 year period, the biggest and most intense terrorist attacks take place. During this period, the widespread and simultaneous activity of anti-government terrorist groups and ethnic separatist terrorist groups will intensify terrorist attacks in Iran. The 267 terrorist attacks recorded in these four years are almost equal to half of the total terrorist attacks of the last 40 years. Spatially, this wave of terrorist attacks has been concentrated in Tehran and major cities and boundary regions in the northwest and southwest of Iran. Assessing the distribution of terrorist attacks during this period shows that attacks by anti-government terrorist groups follow a hierarchical distribution, whereas the attacks of separatist terrorist groups have followed the pattern of proximity or contagious diffusion.The second long wave is related to terrorist attacks between 1990 and 1994. This wave of terrorist attacks in Iran coincides with the end of the Iran-Iraq war. In this wave of terrorist attacks, mainly anti-government groups are active who sent troops from abroad to carry out terrorist attacks inside Iran. During this period, the terrorist attacks of the separatist groups in the western and southwestern provinces of Iran will be significantly reduced compared to the previous wave. However, terrorist attacks in Sistan and Baluchestan province begin with considerable intensity and are largely affected by the Proximity contagion of terrorist and extremist groups in Indian subcontinent.  The pattern of terrorist attacks in this period is mainly hierarchical due to the activity of anti-government terrorist groups. During this period, terrorists mainly used the bombing method in their attacks. The focus of terrorist attacks is spatially in Tehran and the centers of major provinces. The third long wave of terrorist attacks began in 2005 and will continue until 2014. This period coincides with the intense activity of separatist terrorist groups with a religious approach in the South-East regions of Iran. So that in this wave, Sistan and Baluchestan province has the highest frequency of terrorist attacks in Iran. Also, the activities of terrorist groups in Khuzestan, Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan provinces increase significantly compared to the previous period. A study of the spatial distribution of terrorist attacks shows that these attacks are affected by the proximity diffusion inside and outside the State. In this wave, the instrument and methods used by terrorists change in accordance with and under the influence of international religious terrorism in the South-East of the State, and terrorists use unconventional methods such as suicide attacks. In addition to these three major waves of terrorist attacks in Iran, two shorter and less intense waves of other terrorist attacks have also occurred in Iran. The first short wave of terrorist attacks takes place from 1998 to 2000. This short wave of terrorist attacks is in fact a continuation of the long wave from 1990 to 1994, which follows the same pattern in terms of the type of terrorist groups and the geography of the attacks. The second short wave of terrorist attacks took place from 2015 to 2018. This short wave of terrorist attacks is also located along the long wave of 2005 to 2013. With the difference that in this period, International terrorist groups, specifically ISIS, attacks in Iran. In this short wave, the main attacks took place in the boundary regions of Iran in of Sistan and Baluchestan, West Azerbaijan, Khuzestan and Kurdistan provinces.Almost all terrorist attacks in Iran between 1978 and 2018 were carried out by two groups of terrorist groups. First, there are anti-government terrorist groups that carried out terrorist acts with the aim of overthrowing the ruling political system and changing the government. The places and spaces that these groups targeted were mainly located in large and important cities of Iran. Anti-government groups planned and carried out their attacks first in Tehran and then in the provincial capitals and metropolises. Therefore, the distribution of terrorist attacks in these terrorist groups has been done hierarchically from a geographically. These groups have been very influential in the first and second wave of terrorist attacks, but gradually and with the strengthening of the political and security system of state, the intensity of this group and their ability to attack has been greatly reduced.The second type of terrorist group includes groups with separatist goals. These groups are active in ethnic and religious areas around of state that are not complete homogeneity with the central government. Separatist groups have been very active in the first and third waves of terrorist attacks in Iran. A noteworthy point about these groups is the spatial and geographical as well as organizational connection of some of them with terrorist organizations active in neighboring countries. Also, these groups have spatial and organizational pursuits outside the country. Therefore, the pattern of diffusion the attacks of these terrorist groups from the geographical point of view is proximity and contagion

Division of territorial and demographic area of country into electoral districts is the first step to facilitate elections and provide a suitable background for a fair proportion between the number of lawmakers and the population of the country. Drawing electoral districts must be in such a way that guarantees the justice and equality among citizens and leads to the formation of democratic parliament that represents different groups of the people. The present study has assessed trend of approval of the bill to reform the table of electoral districts of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the number of lawmakers in 2000. This research is applied in terms of purpose and is descriptive in terms of nature and general method. The findings show that demographic indicators, adaption to administrative divisions, extent, place competition, deprivation, locating in border areas, and finally economical and industrial situation were the most important effective indicators in increasing lawmakers and reforming electoral districts in 20 cases. Lack of definition of indicators for criteria of Article 64 of the Constitution (human, political, geographical and alike) and failure to calculate their weight and share in redistricting due to the lack of a redistricting part in ministry of interior have led to spatial injustice in increasing the number of lawmakers, separating and annexation some electoral districts in government bill.

Different Islamic movements are active in the political geography of the Islamic world. Despite the differences in their approach to political and social issues, the ultimate goal of all of them is to establish an Islamic government. One of these Islamic movements is the Hizb al-Tahrir, developed in 1952 by Sheikh Taghi al-Din al-Nabhani, a Palestinian scholar. The movement seeking to establish an Islamic state based on the teachings of its founder was quickly disseminated in the Islamic world. From the very beginning of its activity, this Islamic movement has stated its ultimate goal to establish an Islamic state, revive the caliphate, restore Islamic life, and invite the world to Islam. Al-Tahrir states in his draft constitution that the main component of the government is the "caliph" and that he will be elected by a public department (Majles al-Ummeh) and its members will be elected by the people. Since its establishment, al-Tahrir has always sought to influence and dominate the political geography of the Islamic world. One of the places of interest is Central Asia including the republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Writing since the early 1990s, he was active in Central Asia and aimed to establish an Islamic state (caliphate). In this study, as a descriptive-analytical research, the data have been gathered from literature and the Internet. The purpose of this research is to examine the factors affecting the intents of the party for territory in the region. In response, it can be attributed to the party's ideology for establishing an Islamic state in Central Asia.

The main method of empirical sciences, including geography, is the deductive method. The deductive method or deductive reasoning reveals the scientific principles through the process of reasoning, and thus it is a logical method. In fact, logical reasoning supports and reinforces empirical ideas and impressions and synthesizes them by forming a thesis and antithesis. In this method, the methods of creating a rule that is the basis of its validity are examined.

Central Asia is made up of three parts: West Turkestan, Transoxiana, and much of eastern Iran, strategically located between Europe, China, Russia, and Iran. The region covers the political territory of the republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. From the third century, the region became one of the main centers of Islamic culture and civilization. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Russians conquered Central Asia and established the government of Turkestan. During this period, Muslims in the region were able to protect their Islamic rites and continue Islamic believes. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Muslims in the region were looking for an opportunity to improve their position. The war between Russia and Japan took place in 1907 and was the opportunity that Muslims were looking for. As the Russia was defeated by Japan, the Muslims were able to use Russia's internal weakness to improve their position. With the beginning of Soviet rule, the struggle against Islam entered a new phase. But the Muslims' interest in Islamism in the region has made the government's efforts to destroy Islam fruitless. Gorbachev declared religious freedom to reduce the challenges of the Soviet Union, and it was at this time that many current Islamist movements, such as the Hizb al-Tahrir in Central Asia, initiated to form in the early 1990s. They also officially announced their existence. Al-Tahrir, led by Yusuf Sheikh Abdul Qadim Zulum, developed its activities in Central Asia. The movement in Central Asia initially attracted its followers in Uzbekistan, but then Muslims of other states of the region also joined to the movement in the late 1990s. The target community in Central Asia is women, prisoners, students and intellectuals. Feelings of emptiness and lack of clear vision for the future in the eyes of the people of this region especially the youth, their poor economic conditions, the establishment of charities and the support of the poor by the station, existence of Marxist thoughts, weakness of the prevailing government to meet the public requirements and good organization of this movement in the region made it appealing for most people of the region. The Al-Tahrir pursues a different strategy in each state of the Central Asia in accordance with the specific social and political conditions of that country. Al-Tahrir in Uzbekistan seeks to spread its message to the people. In Tajikistan, he is competing with both government forces and other Islamic groups. In Kyrgyzstan, as a country's of relatively free space, it attempts to strengthen its ties with the people. In Kazakhstan, it is organizing forces and refusing to fight the government. Therefore, it can be said that the presence of this party in the region is the struggle for the Islamic awakening, the implementation of the rules and regulations of Islam and the establishment of the Islamic government (caliphate).

Central Asia in modern times includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. In the third century, this region used to be one of the main centers of Islamic culture and civilization. The Russians dominated the region and created Turkestan county there in the mid-nineteenth century. In seeking for an opportunity to develop their territory, the leaders of al-Tahrir made attempts to promote their position when the Russia defeated by Japan in 1907. The results have indicated that many Islamism movements, including al-Tahrir, in the region were initiated with the religious freedom thoughts by Gorbachev. It can be concluded that the most important factors in influence and dominance of the al-Tahrir Party in Central Asia are including collapse of Soviet Union, a favorable space with people interested in Islamic believes, and other political, social, and economic conditions. Key Word: Hizb ut-Tahrir, Islamic Movement,Al Nabhani, Central Asia, Islamic Government

Since the late 19th century, Iraqi immigrants have formed a community in the US that is widely known as a part of the Arab-Muslim diaspora in the country, yet the majority of this community is non-Arab and non-Muslim. The Iraqi diaspora in the US remains understudied and misunderstood in terms of its ethno-religious diversity as well as the type of influence that it has on its host country’s politics towards the homeland. The key question of this paper is that what is the influence of Iraqis’ ethno-religious diversity on their diaspora identity in the US? To answer the question, we consider the diversity as a vital feature of the Iraqi diaspora, with reference to their patterns of emigration, their settlement and the shaping of their diasporic identity in the host country. We comment on how the divergent dynamics of ethno-religious diversity impinges on different views of the “homeland” and on the future of the diaspora community in the US.

In the analysis of development in general and the origin and performance of developmental state in particular, the concept of political will, which is ultimately the result of institutions, is emphasized. But there is no convincing explanation of how and where this necessary will to change and create institutions comes from. The main purpose of this article is to examine how the developmental state was formed. Using a qualitative method (process tracing) and taking advantage of the theoretical achievements of the "third phase of institutionalism" and by deciphering the black box of political will, we will show that "It is the political leadership that provides the necessary ground for the formation and proper functioning of the developmental state. Leadership builds coalitions through a process backed by political capital and, through re-framing, provides a new expression of the underlying problems and obstacles to development and their solutions, and manages potential crises along the way with its pragmatic approach." The findings of this study show that in the process of political leadership as a causal mechanism, there are several variables with different relationships that ultimately affect the formation of the developmental state and the overall development process.

Democracy means rule of people and their role in determining their political fate. Based on this idea, anything contrary to the public votes and views shall be deemed unacceptable. On the contrary, the basis of Islamic system of governance is on Islamic Sharia and any verdict outside the Islamic rule and law will be nullified. In the contemporary world, democracy has turned into a heated debate among the Sunni scholars. Sunni scholars’ understanding of democracy (rule of people) is different. Depending upon the type of their interpretation of Islam, there are four different political thoughts, each supporting a different approach to democracy. This paper, developed through a descriptive-analytical methodology, has gathered data from written and Internet sources to find an appropriate answer to the following question: What understanding do the contemporary Sunni Islamologists have on democracy with respect to the Holy Quran and other religious and jurisprudential sources? In response, we can say that reason-based understanding of Sunni thinkers and scholars of the Holy Quran and other Islamic texts has resulted in formation of four traditionalist, fundamentalist, reformist and secular approaches vis-à-vis democracy.
Findings of the paper indicate that in view of traditionalists, the compromise between Islam and democracy will yield nothing but metamorphosis of Islam. Fundamentalists consider democracy a means of “aberrance from the path of religion”. Thanks to such factors as voting and role of people in determining their political fate, reformists believe in conformity and concurrence between Islam and democracy. Seculars, however, insist on separation of church and state and regard democracy as the best model of governance in the new age.
This paper intends to review in detail the four different opinions of Sunni scholars on democracy. The paper’s innovation, in comparison with previous works, lies in analysis of the views of four intellectual spectra of Sunni thinkers with respect to democracy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the: Election Campaign Finance of parliamentary elections in Iran. The spatial scope of this study was the financial expenses of the candidates for the Islamic Consultative Assembly in the tenth election of Rasht Township in Guilan province. This study was conducted in the period of spring 2020 to the end of spring 2021. The main question that the researcher sought to answer is: What are the factors affecting the financial costs of the parliamentary elections in Iran? The mixed method was used to achieve the research objectives - distributed a questionnaire with a sample size of 379 people and semi-in-depth interviews with ten activists and parliamentary candidates.In terms of theoretical framework, both the agency and rational choice of political actors and the impact of the structures and institutional position of the political electoral machine in Iran have been considered. The results of the study showed that the most important factors influencing the methods of financing parliamentary elections in Iran are: historical contexts and political culture, political knowledge of voters, MP-citizen linkage, citizens' attitudes toward the electoral system, number and variety of sponsors and their motives, the type of political system, social and political divisions, and the economic situation of society. Among the mentioned factors, the citizen's relationship with the memberof parliament and the type of political system have the most impact on how the parliamentary elections are financed. Almost 95% of the respondents emphasized that in authoritarian electoral regimes, the short-term interests of citizens, especially their sponsors, take precedence over other matters, and that there is a kind of institutionalized supportive relationship that goes beyond the issue of elections and for reproduction and continuity during the past decades have affected all aspects of the lives of citizens in different parts of the province, and by weakening the democratic process, it has provided numerous and complex contexts for all kinds of corruption. The findings also suggest that in order to reduce the adverse consequences of the methods of financing and spending political money, current laws should be reviewed and the experiences of other countries should be used.

In Iran, since the beginning of the constitution, various models such as guild elections, two degrees and the majority system have been implemented; But still, the discussion of choosing a favorable electoral system, appropriate to the geographical, ethnic and cultural conditions and characteristics in the Iranian political system has been one of the most challenging issues in recent years. Among these, two cities of Noorabad Mamasani and Rostam have been the most challenging districts for recent years. It is truly a controversial and disputing issue in rather than ending conflicts. Accordingly, current study has been based on this question: “what kind of electoral system can be impose to this constituency to replace disunion, diversity (disagreement) and deepening social gaps by understanding, empathy and civic participation? So, preferential-alternative voting system has been suggested as a proper model for this constituency and studied as a primary answer.In this system, candidates attempt to poll the absolute majority votes that is necessary for entering parliament so it is needed to seek citizens` vote and focus on benefits and values of several social groups as well as commitment to them instead of emphasizing social gaps. So, social cohesion can be achieved and unity basis can be consolidated by implementing this electoral system in a long term but also prevents the breakdown of social bonds.

The Muslim Brotherhood is the name of a political-social movement established in 1928 by Hassan al-Blaana in Egypt. Despite the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is an Egyptian organization, it has global incentives and seeks to create a single, global organization under its own management. To this end, the members of this party in the late 1930s began to engage with Islamist enthusiasts in the Arab world. The Muslim Brotherhood, while communicating with Muslim and non-Muslim countries, has begun to establish branches in these countries. The Muslim Brotherhood is strongly opposed to secularism and secular nationalism and seeks to establish an Islamic state in Egypt, and ultimately in the Muslim world. This study, using a descriptive-analytical method with data collected from written sources and the Internet, seeks to find the possible reasons for the failure of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. It can be said that the failure of the Muslim Brotherhood was due to its incompatibility with the political and social environment of Egypt on the one hand and the interference of external factors on the other. The findings of this study indicate that the constitutional trap, the lack of charismatic leadership, managerial weakness, the poor economic conditions in Egypt, the challenge with other parties, the tension with the army, the conflict with al-Azhar and the interference of foreign powers were among the factors that led the failure of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. According to Islam promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood, politics means absolute politics in the real sense of the word, that is, attention to the internal and external affairs of the nation without relying on any particular party. The Brotherhood is an invitation to return because it calls on Muslims to return to Islam and the Qur'an. It follows a traditionalistic approach because it requires itself to practice a pure tradition. It is, in fact, a Sufi reality and political institution because it calls for the reform of the government from inside and the revision of the relation of the Islamic nation with other nations of the world. Ultimately, it has social insight. The Muslim Brotherhood sought to establish an Islamic state in Egypt. But a look at the fundamental slogans of this movement on the one hand, and the political and social atmosphere of Egypt, on the other hand, suggests that it is difficult to establish a fit between them. The Egyptian revolution (2011) was the golden opportunity that the Muslim Brotherhood had been looking for years to make clear and put into action their intentions.

The main method of empirical sciences, including geography, is the deductive method. The deductive method or deductive reasoning reveals the scientific principles through the process of reasoning, and thus it is a logical method. In fact, logical reasoning supports and reinforces empirical ideas and impressions and synthesizes them by forming a thesis and antithesis. In this method, the methods of creating a rule that is the basis of its validity are examined.

Egypt located in North Africa is one of the most important countries in the Islamic world due to the presence in al-Azhar University. The domination of the Egyptian government over al-Azhar on the one hand and the lack of financial independence, on the other hand, made this discursive center unable to function well. This situation aggravated by the fall of the Ottoman caliphate in 1918 led to the formation of the Muslim Brotherhood (1928). The Brotherhood originated in the city of Ismailia. Later, it became an overarching ideology in Egypt and was ultimately reflected on a transnational scale. After the revolution of 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood succeeded in taking control of the government in Egypt. But a set of factors led the party to fall in 2013. The factors affecting the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood were the constitutional trap, the lack of charismatic leadership, managerial weakness, the disastrous situation of Egypt, the inability of the government to fulfill its promises to the people, lack of interaction with other parties, tension with the army, disagreement with al-Azhar, and the opposition of the regional and international powers.

The Muslim Brotherhood was the product of the political and social conditions of Egypt and the entire Muslim world after the fall of the Ottoman caliphate. The Muslim Brotherhood officially started its political activities in 1939 due to the Second World War and the protests by the people about the British presence in Egypt. With the rise of Abdel Nasser in 1952, the Brotherhood was allowed to do political activities. But the Brotherhood's attempts to Islamicize the Egyptian society caused friction between the Brotherhood and Nasser, and many of them went to jail. During the Sadat era, many members of the Brotherhood were released from prison and began to take political actions, but the Camp David Peace Treaty caused a disagreement between the Brotherhood and Anwar Sadat, which caused Anwar Sadat to imprison many of them. When Mubarak came into power in the 1980s, the Muslim Brotherhood resumed their political activities due to the open political atmosphere at that time. However, the proximity of Mubarak to Israel created tension in the relationship between the Brotherhood and Mubarak. The September 11 incident led to the reopening of political space in Egypt. The Brotherhood took advantage of this opportunity and won over 80 seats in the 2005 parliamentary elections, an issue that was of concern to Mubarak. The 2011 revolution led Mubarak to collapse from power. The Muslim Brotherhood managed to take power but fell within a year. Among the factor leading to the failure of the Brotherhood, one can mention the constitutional trap, the lack of strong leadership, the chaotic situation in Egypt, the consensus of other parties against the Brotherhood, the opposition to al-Azhar, and the negative regional and global reactions. So the Brotherhood, after years of struggle, questioned its competency for establishing an Islamic and democratic government in Egypt due to its poor performance.

Since the late 19th century, Iraqi immigrants have formed a community in the United States, which is widely known as a part of the Arab-Muslim diaspora in the country, while the reality is rather different, since the majority of this community is non-Arab and non-Muslim. The focus of this paper is to investigate the US-based Iraqi diaspora identity regarding its formation and evolution by reviewing its history and exploring its diversity, which could inform readers about the major identification modalities taken by members of the community in the American context. The key question discussed in this paper is therefore the following: how does Iraqi diaspora identity diverge or converge within the American context, influenced by historical, ethnic and religious elements? Using analytical narratives as our corpus of study, we will discuss the way in which Iraqi-Americans present their identity by commenting on their ethno-religious diversity and the impact of the diversity on the community. Findings indicate that affected by US-Iraq relationships as well as different contexts in both homeland and the host country throughout the last three decades, a divergent dynamism has serious potentials to influence the future of this diaspora community in the United States.

Following the official announcement of the first cases of the COVID-19 virus in China on late December 2019, it outbreak rapidly to most parts of the world and putting the world in a state of emergency. Different governments have reacted differently to this crisis. It is noteworthy that variables such as the type of political regime, the structure of government and the capacity of governments have not necessarily a direct and decisive relationship with countries' response to this crisis. For example, the number of mortality in developed and democratic countries such as the United States, Spain, Britain and Italy has been much higher than some developing countries. The key question of this paper is that "What is the reason for the different behavior of different countries in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic?" The hypothesis of this article is that "in times of crisis, the most important factor in determining the reaction of countries is political leadership and different ways of sense-making." This article judges this hypothesis with using the CIP leadership model and dividing leadership and sense-making into charismatic, ideological, and pragmatic, and case studies of India, the United States, and Germany, the authors, while proving and confirming the article hypothesis, have concluded that pragmatic leadership is more effective in the recent crisis.

Knowledge is power (quoted from Ferdowsi), knowledge is really the ability. Science, economics and power affect each other. The interactive influences of science and technology, economy and power, are vital and widespread. The power of science, social contexts, economics context has revolutionized political thought and military power and crosses the natural boundaries and transformed the weight of the countrychr('39')s geopolitical. Identifying the relationship between knowledge, economic situation and power has always been particularly importance. Studies show that in the term of economy, power, science and technology of each country are placed in a different position, and according to this position, their goals and policies are variable. In this regard, this study aimed to analyze the links between science and technology, economy and power of countries and tries to identify the relationship between the complements of science and technology, economy and power. The research method of this paper is descriptive-analytic and data collecting method including the use of statistical resources and the study population included 37 countries which in a period of 9 years 2010 to 2018 in the form of three components were compared and evaluated. The results indicate that there is a positive correlation between the indices of science and technology of countries and economic power, and there is a direct relation between economic power and political power of countries. In addition, countries that have a good position in terms of science and technology have a favorable position in terms of power.

A key important factor in Muslim countries and in relation to public domain, especially with regards to democracy is religious scholars’ viewpoints. Their jurisprudential perceptions which are based on Islamic resources (the Quran and narrations form the Prophet) and influenced by contextual elements such as time and geography have resulted in a wide spectrum of various and even contradictory positions. Given this, different questions arise about origins of legitimacy, compliance and political participation, e.g. how does Islam compromise with republicanism? And also; in an Islamic society the ruler is people’s representative who is appointed by them to govern the society on their behalf or he has custodianship over people? On what basis does an Islamic political system gain its legitimacy; people’s vote or religious authorities? And finally, what relationship does exist between people’s vote and the Guardianship of an Islamic Jurist or Wilayate Faqih? Some Shia-Muslim scholars in answering the above questions believe that the religious political authority is only for the prophet Muhammad and his infallible successors (P.B.U.T) and there is no such a right for anyone else. They restrict a faqih’s social-political authority only to the area which is known as Hesbiyah affairs in the Islamic literature. In contrast, those scholars who believe in the same authority with the prophet for the jurists have created three different discourses in this field. First: An Islamic political system obtains its legitimacy from the law of sharia and therefore people has no interference or contribution in this ground (the appointing theory or the law of sharia). Second: People freely and in accordance with collective wisdom choose an ئIslamic system to govern them (the representative theory). Third: those Islamic laws accepted by majority of Muslims is the basis of legitimacy in an Islamic political system (state-Imamat theory). In other words, the third discourse with differentiating between legitimacy and compliance stress on this fact that an Islamic political system will be actualized only if people’s vote meet with the law of sharia. According to this jurisprudential verdict, while the custodianship aspect of a ruler (wilayat) receives its legitimacy from the sharia- that is similar to the appointing theory- but it is the public vote that makes applicable the custodianship in the social-political arena; like the representative theory.

Zayandeh-rud basin which is located in central Iran, is one of the areas with serious water instability problems. This research had studied water resources and the use of surface and underground waters on Zayandeh-rud Basin and its relation to instability of water resources in the basin. The method of this research is descriptive-analytic and is based on data analysis of water resources and water use. To evaluate water resources, water storage changes in Zayandeh-rud dam is studied, and the amount of drinking Water allocation, and also industry and agriculture sectors usage were studied. The research results show that Basin water resources have been decreasing in recent decades, while water consumption in the basin have had a different trend. Drinking water consumption has been increasing but water allocation to agricultural sector had substantially decreased. Instability of agricultural water resources has caused the river's course to dry out and also continuous flow of water is ceased and therefore many problems had arisen in relation to the allocation of water to agricultural sectors in the middle and lower area of the Basin. To compensate all of this instability and water shortage, farmers have drilled lots of wells and exploited too much underground water for agriculture, which has intensified the instability and shortage of water resources in the Basin. As this devastating cycle continues, environmental and human sustainability in the Basin will be in serious danger.

Intrduction:

 Recent geopolitical revolution in the Middle East called Arab spring; especially the start of Syrian geopolitical crisis in 2011 has led to another conflict and crisis in Levant security subsystem in the Middle East. In addition to being an internal crisis as a result of the special situation of this country and its conflicts between the governance and its opponents as the internal role players, the crisis in Syria has become a geopolitical crisis and a context of geopolitical relations between the regional and trans-regional powers. The purpose of the present study is to identify the reasons for forming a competitive-intervening relations model of the geopolitical relations between Iran as a supporter of Assad's governance and Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel as supporters of the opposition group. For this reason, we intend to find the most important geographical and geopolitical categories in forming the competitive-intervening relations model of regional powers in this crisis based on the significance and relations of these categories with each other. To this end, we proceed with the following hypothesis the formation basis of which will be elaborated in the methodology section. It seems that the competitive-intervening relations of Iran with Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel as the regional powers present in the geopolitical crisis of Syria has been formed under the influence of geographical factors, ideological factors, geopolitical codes, geostrategic factors, geo-economic factors, regional geopolitical system conditions, and world geopolitical system conditions.

Metodology: 

The present study is a mixed methods approach with an exploratory purpose using a model formation and taxonomy approach. The Grounded theory was used for the qualitative part of the study. As to the quantitative part, the study used Structural Equation Modeling in addition to Smart PLS software in order to strengthen the findings.

Geographical factors,As identified in the examined model of the study, geographical factors with a path coefficient of 0.830 has the most impact on the competitive-intervening model between Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Israel in the geopolitical crisis in Syria and these factors are ethnical, borderline and regional, emigrational, hydro political, and environmental categories. Geostrategic factors, Geostrategic factors with a path coefficient of 0.819 in the examined model of the study are the second influential factors in the competitive-intervening geopolitical relations model of regional powers in the geopolitical crisis of Syria. This includes the two categories of geographical situation of Syria and partial situation of this country. Geopolitical codes, Geopolitical codes with a path coefficient Of 0.812 in the examined model of the study are the third factors to influence the competitive-intervening geopolitical relations model of regional powers in the geopolitical crisis. This factor, in the qualitative model of the study, includes the two categories of internal and foreign policies. Ideological factors, According to the examined model of the study, the fourth influential variable in competitive-intervening geopolitical relations model in the Syrian crisis is the ideological factors with a path coefficient of 0.794 embracing religious categories, sacred places, and discourse categories. World geopolitical system, The fifth factor influencing the competitive-intervening geopolitical relations model in the Syrian crisis is the world geopolitical system conditions with a path coefficient of 0.773 including the categories of world powers’ interventions in the crisis, and the wolrd powers’ relations with the regional powers in geopolitical crisis of Syria. Regional geopolitical system, Regional geopolitical system with a path coefficient 0.743 is the sixth influential factor in the competitive-intervening geopolitical relations model in the Syrian crisis. It includes the two concepts of regional competition of the powers present in the geopolitical crisis of Syria and partial equality of power levels of these countries in this crisis. Geo economic factors, According to the examined model of the study, geo economic factors with a path coefficient of 0.719 are the last influential factors on the competitive-intervening geopolitical relations model in the Syrian crisis. These factors include energy resource categories and economic interests.

At the level of regional powers, the crisis in Syria is influenced by the relations between Iran as the most important regional ally of Bashar al-Assad's governance, and Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel as the regional opposition of Assad’s governance. These relations are in place in a competitive-intervening way and are under the influence of different geographical and geopolitical categories. The study of the impact of each of these categories on the regional power relations in the Syrian geopolitical crisis cannot provide a complete understanding of the relations between these powers in the Syrian geopolitical crisis. Therefore, explanation of the regional powers’ relations in this crisis must be provided concerning the relation of these categories as well as their importance and in the framework of a single structural model. Influential categories in regional powers relation’s model in the Syrian geopolitical crisis are geographic and geopolitical stable factors that are directly related to national and long-term national interests as well as the national life of these countries. Each of the Syrian crisis regional parties seeks to excel in its geographical and geopolitical factors and to prevent the dominance of their rivals over these factors; therefore, none of the regional parties involved in the current crisis come into terms from their positions regarding the geopolitical crisis in Syria. This situation has led to the formation of a competitive-intervening model in the Syrian geopolitical crisis as to Iran's relations with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel. This has complicated the situation in Syria and led to the continuation of the crisis thereby making the efforts and negotiations to resolve the crisis and the end of the conflict pointless and unavailing.

The Mediterranean Basin is the name of a large area around the Mediterranean Sea. The basin includes the Mediterranean Sea and the continental regions near the coast of southern Europe, north Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. The most important part of the Mediterranean basin, located in the fragile belt of the Middle East, is the "Mediterranean East." This is the center of the rivalry of the three powers of Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Iran has focused on the Eastern Mediterranean since the beginning of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, and this region is one of the infiltrating centers of Iran. The three countries of Syria, Lebanon and occupied Palestine are the main geopolitical core of Iran in the eastern Mediterranean. In this research, the research methodology was descriptive-analytical and used to collect information from written sources and the Internet, in response to the question of what impact the East Mediterranean has on Iran's geopolitical abstraction in Southwest Asia? It can be said that the Eastern Mediterranean has an important role in the geopolitical exploitation of Iran in Southwest Asia and, ultimately, its leadership over the Islamic world. The findings of the study indicate that the position of the Eastern Mediterranean on the Mediterranean coast, located at the crossroads of the three continents, the proximity to the Straits of Gibraltar and the Suez, the existence of Shiite minorities in Syria and Lebanon, only countries close to Iran adopts regional and global policies, Iran's geopolitical supplements in domination of the central part of the Islamic world, the route of energy transfer between Iran and Iraq to Europe and, finally, Iran's embankment in confronting Israel are important geopolitical factors that make regional policy in the East Mediterranean justify. Therefore, it can be said that Iran's geopolitical erosion in the Eastern Mediterranean is realistic and in line with the national interests of Iran.

The Nile plays a key role in the economies of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia, and is a major driver of competition between them. Despite the competition between the three countries, they had no challenge until the early 1990s. But since then, as a result of increasing demand, the competition for the Nile water rights increased as a result of the Ethiopian government's move to build the Renaissance Dam in 2011. This descriptive-analytical study explores the impact of the Nile hydropolitics on geopolitical relations between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. The findings of this study indicate that colonial conventions, the lack of a proper mechanism for water division, population growth, agricultural and industrial development in the Nile Basin, the construction of the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia, and finally the involvement of foreign powers have caused the Nile Basin became an area of hydropolitical competition between the beneficiary countries. Consequently, due to the insistence of the upstream countries on the fair share of the Nile water, the Nile Hydropolicy will create the “geopolitical confrontation” among the three countries.

No country can maintain its political, economic and social stability without having sufficient water. Due to population growth and the development of industries, freshwater resources and access to them has become a "geopolitical crisis" in some countries. A striking example is a dispute between the three states of Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt over the water right from the Nile River. Although there are about eleven countries, locating along the Nile River route and each complaining about its share of water, the largest disagreement on how to exploit the Nile is among the mentioned three countries as they do not use the same amount of water from the Nile. The highest level of water from the Nile is consumed by Egypt and Sudan. In recent years, issues such as population growth and the urgent need for water for domestic and agricultural use have led Ethiopia to demand a fair share of the Nile water. Therefore, in 2011, Ethiopia started constructing the Renaissance Dam, which will have negative consequences for the downstream countries.

This theoretical study employs a descriptive-analytical method. The data are collected using a library technique from different books, articles, first-hand references, and valid internet resources. The study explores the impact of the Nile hydropolitics on geopolitical relations between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. Accordingly, it is hypothesized that the Nile has placed Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia on the verge of a geopolitical confrontation.

Heterogeneous rainfall distribution contributes to the irregular distribution of freshwater worldwide, with 40 percent of the world’s land mass being located in North Africa, Australia, and the Middle East, which holds only 2 percent of the world's freshwater resources. The war on water is one of the most repetitive events in history, and the likelihood of it happening again in the future has increased. A striking example is the dispute between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia over the exploitation of the Nile and the construction of dams on it. The need for water for consumption and agriculture led to the conclusion of the agreement on the exploitation of the Nile between Britain and Italy in 1920, whereby about 48 billion cubic meters of water entered Egypt annually and about 4 billion cubic meters were Sudan's share. The proposal to build a major dam in Aswan revealed the necessity of revising the 1929 agreement. As a result, another agreement was signed for the full exploitation of the Nile water, whereby Egypt received 55 billion m3 of water annually, while Sudan received a share of 18.5 billion m3. After many years of exploiting Egypt, the Britain turned to Sudan and Ethiopia in the upper part of the Nile in order to produce more cotton and wheat. Dam construction on the Nile continued nonstop, but peaked in the 1960s, with a greater number of dams built on the Nile by Sudan and Ethiopia. Such a process was not pleasing to Egypt in the Lower Nile and led to the construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1970 by Egypt.

Since the mid-1990s, a result of the growing demand for new irrigation schemes, population growth, and a higher standard of living, the competition for the Nile water rights increased, resulting in the 1999 Nile Basin Initiative Agreement, which later on proved to be ineffective, followed by another agreement, known as Entebbe Agreement, between Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. But Sudan and Egypt refused to sign the agreement, saying their rights had been ignored in the agreement.

In 2011 amid protests by the Nile Basin countries, the Ethiopian government began the construction of a dam that was strongly opposed by Egypt and Sudan that believed exploiting this dam is a Renaissance in Ethiopia, but it is beginning to ruin them. Egypt has a pessimistic view of its construction and regards it almost like a barrier to its boom. In contrast, Sudan is less concerned. Although the dam has made 60% physical progress, its operation is still undecided because of its threat to Egypt and its destructive effects on human and agricultural life.

Although competition for water use between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia continued in the following decades, as a result of the increasing demand for water, the competition for the Nile water rights has intensified from the 1990s onward especially when the Ethiopian government started the construction of the Renaissance Dam in 2011. The Egyptians believed that the construction of the dam would damage their country. But Ethiopia considered the fair exploitation of the Nile as its natural right, and the negotiations between the two countries so far have not yielded a positive result. Thus, if the upstream countries insist on a fair share of Nile water, it will cause significant damage to Egypt's drinking, agriculture and tourism water and to some extent to Sudan.

IntroductionSince the end of the Second World War, the development paradigm has become the dominant discourse in the world. During the more than 6 decades that the concept of development discourse has been dominant, many theoretical and practical developments have accompanied it. First, attention was solely paid on economic development and nature was considered as a facilitator of economic growth. However, it was gradually recognized that development with this economic growth approach changes the natural systems of the planet and leads to numerous environmental hazards that can threaten the economic and political systems of countries. Therefore, it is very possible for a political entity to attain the development, but sustained development will be faced with serious doubts because environmental aspects are ignored. Therefore, the concept of sustainable development replaced development.
MethodologyGiven the above- mentioned approach, this descriptive-analytic research examined the relationship between Development Programs and the environmental problems with Urmia Lake as a case example. To do this, an analytic and explanatory method, the accumulation of data and the existing literature have been adopted to carry out a library and document-based research.
DiscussionUrmia Lake, located in the northwestern part of Iran, is one of the salt over-saturated lakes in the world. This lake was introduced as a Biosphere Reserve to UNESCO’s program of Man and the Biosphere and was included in the list of the Wetlands of this Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar-1971). The water level in Urmia Lake was at its highest in 1995 and then, since 1995 up to 2012, it has declined more than seven meters. A review of other studies shows that although climate change and particularly evaporation increment are significant agents in decreasing the water level, the main causes of drying up the lake have been anthropogenic factors. For example, Lak, Darvishi Khatooni and Mohammadi (2011) suggested that although Iran has experienced a long-term drought since 13000 years ago up to now, Urmia Lake has never experienced dryness except in coastal areas and the main part of the lake has had lacustrine environment for 13000 years. On the other hand, according to Jamali, Sharifi, and Pourmand (2013), climate change never affects a single point selectively, and the performance of these changes is always on an extensive scale. The dramatic decrease in the water level of Lake Urmia has not been observed in the neighboring lakes such as the Sevan Lake in Armenia and Lake Van in Turkey. Therefore, the National Development Programs as well as development plans in the Urmia Lake Basin as human factors influencing the current situation and the environmental problems of Lake Urmia have been analyzed in this research. At present there are about 95 dams in the Urmia Lake Basin, 57 of which are operational, nine are under construction, and 29 are in the study phase. Moreover, water utilization has increased very rapidly in the past two decades and has depleted more than 90 percent of the water in the aquifers. The agriculture sector is the most important consumer of the water in this Basin and has experienced remarkable changes during the last three decades. So, The Development Programs have been one of the main reasons for the drying up of the Lake. The consequences resulting from the implementation of Development Plans in the Urmia Lake basin and drying the Lake are mainly the disruption of the biodiversity in the region, increased salinity, soil erosion, pollution of water sources, salt dust, and weather changes in the region that can threaten the sustainability of the development.
ConclusionThe analysis of the planning process and Development Programs in Iran shows that the patterns of development in Iran have always been based on economic growth which allows for achieving other economic and social goals. So, environmental resources have been considered as the foundation of national wealth and economic growth facilitator. Development with the economic growth approach has led to numerous environmental problems in the country of which Lake Urmia is an example. Therefore, it is possible for a political entity to attain development, but sustained development will be faced with serious doubts because environmental aspects are ignored.

With the formation of centralized system in the country and focus on the cultural and economic capital in Tehran on one hand, and poor investment and utilization of the potentials of the rest of the country on the other hand, Tehran and the surrounding areas have become the main focus of population and immigration. The focus of demographic, economic, educational and other factors in Tehran has created many problems. One of the most important of which, is increasing pressure on the environment. In the meantime, obviously Tehran has to import massive resources from other regions and export massive amounts of pollution and waste, due to ecological limitations for survival.Therefore, this model of unsustainable development is rapidly extending to the surrounding areas as well.This research has been done by analytic/descriptive method and the used data was collected from valid documents and reports. The main question of the research is: What environmental and security consequences will be followed by centralization and immigration In Tehran Urban region?Attained results from this research show that this increased pressure will be accompanied by unsustainability and environmental disasters and if not addressed, it will result in formation of social, political and security crises.Therefore, it is essential to invest on the potentials and capacities of the rest of the country to balance population density.

Intrduction:Although terror and terrorism are not new phenomena in the world and its history back to the formation of policy and governance¡ but in the last decades of twentieth century with the development of technological and communicational tools¡ proliferation of advanced weapons¡ complex organizing¡ jobbery of authorities¡ and formation of ethnic¡ national and ideological incentives¡ power and role of terrorist groups and organizations has been increased. Terrorism has become one of the major challenges of the 21st century. Growth and expansion of terrorist attacks in recent years has caused specialists to focus on explain of the reasons of formation and growth contexts and expansion of this phenomenon and analysis of its various aspects. Among the various aspects of terrorism and terrorist attacks¡ spatial dimension has attracted particular interest of political geographers. There are a few geographical studies in terrorism literature¡ and most of them are deprived of a conceptual framework. These conditions and factors provide the need for identifying spatial dimensions of the phenomenon in order to have philosophy and certain nature for geographic studies of terrorism.
This article seeks to answer this question that “what spatial dimensions does the terrorism have? To answer the question¡ this article has used descriptive-analytic method. The required data is collected through library resources¡ documents¡ statistical data of scientific websites and International reports in connection with the terrorist attacks.
Geographers in general and political geographers in special have little interest in studying terrorism. Therefore¡ geographers’ contribution to development of terrorism concept is minimal. In order to draw a specific theoretical framework for geographic studies of terrorism¡ spatial dimensions of terrorism and terrorist attacks would be identified and analyzed. These dimensions can be discussed in six questions. 1- In which spaces does terrorism arise? (Which spaces create terrorism) 2- Which places are targeted by terrorists? 3- What is the territory purpose of terrorists? 4- In which scale and geographical territory do terrorists act? 5- What geographical methods and techniques are used by terrorists? 6- Which geopolitical and spatial reflections do the terrorist attacks have?
Political geographers have to identify and analyze spatial dimensions of terrorism and terrorist attacks as a political phenomenon. Evaluation of the spatial dimensions of terrorism illustrates this phenomenon structurally and functionally which is one of the geospatial analysis capabilities. Structural aspect of geographical study of terrorism explores the impact of territorial and geographic factors¡ characteristics and motivations on formation of this phenomenon. While the functional aspect of geographic study of terrorism pays attention to use and impact of terrorism and terrorist attacks in the geographical space.