The National Security Studies of the Islamic Republic of Iran A Methodological Review

The history of strategic and security studies in Iran dates back to more than a decade (from the middle of the 70’s solar year). In this period various studies have been published in this field in different forms. This set the ground for the localization and application of the concepts and discussions of security studies in Iran. Although the works published during this period are not that much, but they are enough to allow for a critical review. So, this study was an attempt to examine the research methodology based on five original and native text in security studies. Therefore, the main question of the study is that; what are the most important methodological problems of the research conducted in the national security studies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The primary answer to this question can be found in four main problems: the problem of explanation, the perceived problem, the problem of prediction, and the control problem. These four aspects are the most important issues in the behavioral science research methods that can be seen in our country’s security studies. These are the successive problems, and the most important problem is the problem of explanation, that causes the other problems. In other words, the difficulty in explaining makes it difficult to grasp the real and objective, as well as the anticipation and control of security issues. This study claims that solving these four major problems will provide a good basis for the scientific study and method of Iran’s national security studies