پژوهش نامه ایرانی سیاست بین الملل
سال هفتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 13، پاییز و زمستان 1397)

The beginning of public protests in Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa, which is also called Arab Spring, caused a wave of instability over this region. Therefore, in the light of recent developments in the Middle East, the Kurdish issue was also considered as one of the variables which could effect on regional relations. The present paper seeks to investigate the effects of the Arab Spring developments on the Iraq's Kurdistan region. The paper suggested that developments in the Middle East region (after Arab spring) will strengthen the status of the Kurdish region in Iraq and increasing their awareness and demands in the form of independence. In fact, developments in the Middle East and the Arab Spring have created an appropriate opportunity for different minorities, including the Kurds, and have made this ethnical group politically influential community in the region. One of the obvious examples of this upgrade was the announcement of the date for holding the referendum on the independence of the Iraqi Kurdistan on September 25, 2017. Among all over the history, Kurds have always been forgotten people but nowadays there is a new universal attitude towards this people. The method used in this paper is descriptive-analytic and theoretical framework is also the effectiveness theory in macro level (developments in the Arab Spring in the regional system) on the identification of the political transformation of the micro actor with emphasis on the David Singer's opinions.

Related to the conceptual transformations of power and culture and the impact of these two phenomena, extensive studies have been done in international relations. But less research has been done on the interaction of these two concept in the field of international relations. While today, the importance of this connection has become more prominent, especially with the rising of the smart power theory. Therefore, the present research seeks to explain the relation between culture and power in three critical, post structuralism and constructivism approaches, with the help of the conceptual framework of power and comparative method. Each approach of the Critical, Post-Structuralism and Structuralism respectively consider instrumental, discursive, and evolved role for culture toward power. In this regard, the question posed in this research is that how three critical approaches, post-structuralism and constructivism explain the relationship between culture and power in the field of international relations? The results shows that by comparing the viewpoint of the three approaches about relationship between power and culture in international relations, we find that these two phenomena are mutually reinforcing each other in a fluid and dynamic environment compound from cultural concepts such as ideology, meaning, identity, and norms, and in this mutual and interminable relation, the interaction of power and culture in the forms of security, order, and stability emerges.

While targeting human dignity and human security and fundamental human rights, the crimes threaten the security of the world and deprive right of human’s safety. Preventing crime is a very important national and international concern which should be addressed on this agenda by governments.  We are faced with new phenomena of crime in pursuit of globalization in the fields of economics, culture, politics and human rights, as well as criminal law and the emergence of some new crimes that have affected international peace and security. World crimes are divided into two categories. First is profiteering crimes and second is a violent crime (terrorist). In Iran, the importance of the prevention of crime is also predicted in fifth clause of principal 156 of the constitution and in the subset of the tasks of the judicial power but it is never took an operational form. In category of crime prevention, which is one of the important issues for governments in advance and somehow they have an extreme and great responsibilities in this area, government needs to general mobilization and coordination between all government institutions and administrative agencies. In international level, relevant assemblies especially United Nations with designing of five-year congresses to prevent crime and hold twelve congress from 1955 till now in addition providing opportunities for consultation of crime prevention specialists, it is also play the key role as policy-making institution. Therefore with a comparative look to this area, different countries in the field of crime prevention gained valuable experiences and achievements in implementing national crime prevention programs which are the appropriate patterns for implementation at the domestic level from point of view of many legal experts and pundits.

Addressing Iran’s nuclear case was a major constituent of the foreign policy of the United States of America in the administrations of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Therefore, this research attempts to draw a comparison between these administrations with the ultimate goal to answering this question; what were the differences between the Bush and Obama approaches to Iran's nuclear case and which international relations approaches provide the best analysis of the Bush-Obama approach to Iran's nuclear case? According to the research data, the performance of George W. Bush and his cabinet which was strongly influenced by Neo-conservatism beliefs could be analyzed within the framework of offensive realism approach. Bush administration had primarily adopted a unilateral approach to Iran’s nuclear program via emphasis on American exceptionalism, making constant threats to attack Iran’s nuclear installations and not cooperating with other powers involved in the case. On the other hand, Barack Obama, with using the Neoliberalism's facts, demanding of cooperation, interaction, attention to the role of diplomacy, the using of soft power and the capacity of international organizations in foreign policy. Thus, he managed to gain the consensus of major powers and influential economic and political institutions against Iran trough adopting the policy of U.S. driven multilateralism which culminated in an agreement between Iran and 5+1 countries after prolonged negotiations.

With the complexity of the international system and its chaos, foreign policy of countries as part of this system no longer follow the linear logic of the past. Therefore, in the field of foreign policy, there is a need for a new analytical system based on the characteristics of such a system. The West Asian system is heavily influenced by the complexity of the international system. Considering of this point, the main qiestion of this research is what is  the principles and basics of Iran’s foreign polciy strtegy in the west asian regional system considering the complexity which are controlling this network ? The diversity of threats, the diversity of actors, dynamics interference, nonlinear behavior patterns, and the intense cluster of network is the characteristics that Iran faces with them in west Asian network, and according to it, the strategic diversity in west of Asia networking and the strategic system based on triangular _ network deterrence  is axis of Iran's foreign policy in West Asia.

The theory of national role conception can be considered as an effective theoretical framework for explaining foreign policy of countries. Analysts in foreign policy assessment of countries have consistently sacrificed theoretical insights of domestic or international domains, with respect to one of them. The dynamics in the domestic, regional and international environment are the most powerful drivers in guiding of foreign policy of the countries, for this reason, in this paper; we use the theory of national role conception and attempt to integrate the determinative elements of Turkish foreign policy from 2002 to 2016 into a more systematic framework. The question of this study is despite the rule of the AKP during this period in Turkish political system, what factors contributed to the development of Turkish foreign policy from 2002 to 2016? The hypothesis that has been tested in this article is that domestic, regional and international dynamics have been the most important drivers of Turkish foreign policy, which have been studied in the framework of the theory of national role conception. The findings of this study indicate that the theory of national role conception can be a more useful framework for evaluating Turkish foreign policy in comparison with other theoretical frameworks.

The use of scientific and technological capacities to meet the national goals and interests and to reach a level of international cooperation is a phenomenon which used by governments as scientific diplomacy. Scientific diplomacy allows governments to pursue their interests and demands and interact with the global system in their bilateral or multilateral relations with international organizations, which are essentially organizations for shaping international cooperation. The main question of this research is what are the main characteristics of science diplomacy in the strategic documents of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and how I.R. Iran interact in international organizations (Case study: CERN,TWAS and ISESSCO) based on these characteristics? The methodology of the current research is the descriptive method through analyzing of the qualitative content of macro documents and how to use of these indicators regarding Iran’s interplay with international organizations. The main hypothesis of the article is that with reviewing the major documents of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the features of the country's diplomacy can be expressed in international scientific cooperation, joint scientific research, networking of elites and scientists in the region and the world and the purpose of the total efforts of Iranian diplomacy in the international organizations is based on the implementation of the mentioned indicators.