The Geopolitics of the Shi a And Iran's National Security

In every society, security is the outcome of the interaction between various internal and external factors. With regard to Iran, the country’s security is susceptible to crisis and vulnerability, because of its revolutionary and ideological nature, its geopolitical and geo-strategic location, as well as its cultural and ethnic conditions. In current international circumstances, the traditional approach to security, which exclusively focuses on military and external factors, has lost its appeal, and is unable to provide a persuasive account of security issues. New factors with cultural and ideological aspects should be taken into consideration, when discussing Iran’s national security. Currently, within the framework of the Shi’ite geopolitics, which is a combination of cultural and ideological factors, access to vast resources of energy and a geopolitical and strategic location, Iran enjoys a special position. For both cultural-ideological and strategic-security reasons, the West is interested in such a position. In this paper, Iran’s security issues within the framework of the Shi’ite geopolitics are considered.