فهرست مطالب seyed hossein seifzadeh

During the Soviet Union, the central government monopolized all cultural activity throughout this vast empire. This caused the empire's satellites to diverge from their ancient civilization and identity, so that, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the newly independent countries in the region experienced a wandering identity crisis. The existing vacuum provided the basis for Iranian role-playing. So far, however, Iran has not had a constructive role in filling this identity gap. This article attempts to investigate the factors that have contributed to the lack of an active and constructive role played by the Islamic Republic of Iran in this region. It seems that the two most important obstacles in this regard are the nature of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the competitive presence of large regional and trans-regional powers.

US policy towards the Middle East region is faced with significant obstacles and challenges and the United States attempts to stabilize the Middle East within the framework of its goals and interests by overcoming these obstacles. The author attempts to explain the new regional situation (the post-Saddam Iraq) and to assess US plans for countering anti-hegemonic challenges. To him, the depth and extensiveness of US threats to the Middle East and its challenging leaders will not be simply limited to Iraq, notably because it wishes that the existing hierarchical international system continues to prevail. Hence, all forces that disrupt this situation in the Middle East have to be controlled. In the author’s opinion, a number of countries like Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have been successful at adapting themselves with the new conditions and taking advantage of the new atmosphere, but states such as Iran and Saudi Arabia have to adapt a new mindset and rebuild their internal and external orientations.

The present era is that of the domination of modernity over the previous intellectual traditions. But historical analyses and forecast of the changes have led to the formation of three notions in this regard. Fokoyama and his colleagues believe in the end of conflicts and acceptance of liberal-democracy; Samuel Huntington through his theory of Clash of Civilizations argues that the spread of modernity and modernization in the sphere of other civilizations causes disorderliness and strain which will be manifested in the form of retaliatory reactions to the West. Seyed Mohammad Khatami’s notion of Dialogue Among Civilizations, which combines pluralism of modernity with traditions, relies on the philosophical bases of the ancient world for his ethical universalism and advocates dialogue among civilizations. The author tries in the present article to prove that civilization has an expansive, extravert approach to the globalization, while culture has an introvert, contractive approach towards this phenomenon. Hence through propounding globalism and pluralistic exchange whose objective is coexistence of cultures, a better model for globalization and international relations could be found.

What are the factors, alternatives and strategy of the ñUnited States foreign policy in the post- cold war era? How do these affect the U.S. foreign policy decision- making and its implementation. Study of the U.S. foreign policy from the perspectives of elites both in the political and intellectual domains clearly indicate how grounds are set for the American interference in world politics. The article deals with the foundations of intellectual and theoretical aspect of the U.S. interference in world politics which goes beyond more involvement. It concludes how Washington has become poineer in international relations. The author in conclusion provides due attention on how the U.S. foreign policy in its poineering and initiatives has acted and then proposes insights on how Iran in regards to its foreign policy towards the United States can strive to secure its national interests and power procurement.