Geopolitics of the Caspian Sea and Iran’s National Security

In the post-Soviet era, the Caspian Sea region changed the nature from a pure geographical region to a geopolitical region with vital importance for the coastal states. Considering the mutual relations among geography, politics and power in this region, the geopolitical foundations with a spectrum of constant and variable factors can influence the national security of each of the coastal states. Considering the fact that such geopolitical foundations would increase the regional states confrontation with the opportunities and challenges of the region, the main question in this article is what opportunities and challenges does the geopolitical foundations of the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran entail for this country? The hypothesis of the research is that the geopolitical foundations of the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran would bring the opportunity of convergence and co-supplementation with the Caspian coastal states from one hand, and the challenge of being impacted by the constant and variable geographical factors, from the other. This paper will adopt the descriptive-analytical method to verify the hypothesis.