فصلنامه بین المللی ژئوپلیتیک
سال پانزدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 53، بهار 1398)

Caspian Sea is a closed sea, which has not a determined legal regime until now. The main problem is originated from geographical conditions. In the 1982 convention, establishment of legal regime for closed sea are limited for costal states. Caspian Sea is a critical region due to non-comprehensive agreement for delimitation. Specific geopolitical conditions after Soviet collapse provide territorial delimitation, regional influence, and competition between regional and infra-regional powers. Geopolitical parameters could influence delimitation and increase reach to maritime regions. These parameters consist of intraregional relationships patterns, territorial delimiting, regional influence, competition, presence and threat of regional and infra-regional powers which evaluated according to the 1982convention. The present study is aimed to investigate the role of geopolitical conditions as effective geographical parameters to establish Caspian Sea legal regime using content and data analysis method based on library resources. Utilization of hydrocarbon resources in Caspian Sea and its transportation caused to presence of infra-regional states with different economically and strategically interests. Entrance of infra-regional states caused reaction of regional states which challenge stability in the region and makes a competence between these states. This competition initiated a conflict and new security problems which produced the most problems in the regional security, ethnic conflicts, benefits disagreements between regional and infra-regional states, competition and political conflicts. Accordingly, infra-regional states started political contest to control and utilize energy resources in the Caspian region. This contest could be making the biggest world chaos in the region. Russia and Iran are more sensitive to this impact as compared to other states. The US, moreover, attempts to make various policies to ban Russia and Iran impact. It seems that the solution for the Caspian Sea legal regime dramatically affected by infra-regional politics and geopolitics and their competition. This competition can delay legal regime establishment. The results revealed that utilization of hydrocarbon resources and transportation could pave the way to infra-regional states entrance with different economical and strategic interests in the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan states are intended to attract infra-regional states because of inconvenience to regional states. The regional states (Iran and Russia) recognize the presence of infra-regional states such as the US as a threat and would like to compete with this phenomenon.

Water is the foundation of observation, sustainability and unitary political-spatial efficiency. Water safety is evidence of the ability of sugar beetters to provide adequate and safe water to meet social, economic and environmental sustainability needs. Over the past few decades, natural and human components such as climate change, population growth, urbanization, economic growth and economic development have become the subject of a geopolitical essay. The present research, which has a fundamental nature, has placed the concept of water security in a geopolitical perspective using its descriptive-analytical methodology. The results of the research showed that water security at local, national, regional and global scales could affect the nationality of solidarity, regional solidarity and cooperation between space-space units. On a local and national scale, insecurity from the lack of sustainable access to water resources for citizens can meet the stability and security of the political-space units and challenge the legitimacy of the political system. On a transnational (regional and global) scale, water insecurity in hydro-polytechnic relations is more in the form of struggle and struggle in the countries, which means that the upstream countries of the water element as a means and powers of power to contain and exert pressure on neighboring countries And downstream.

Foreign policy is evidence of a series of pre-planned actions by government decision makers focusing on certain goals within the framework of national goals in the international context. Urban diplomacy is one of the tools for strengthening foreign policy in the international arena. It can be used as a complement to foreign policy. There are ways to strengthen this type of diplomacy, one of which is the link between cities, referred to as the "urban sister". In the meantime, the Tehran metropolitan city has been able to create twenty-twenty transplants. Existing surveys show that the increase in the number of sister cities in Tehran depends on foreign policy of Iran. This paper is based on descriptive-analytical method and the method of data collection and information is generally based on the library method. In the more convenient way to study the documents, reference to relevant internal and external books, publications and press, articles, and magazines and Internet sites have been emphasized. After collecting and categorizing information, their analysis is mainly based on description and thinking based on logic and reasoning. The findings of this study are as below:1. Realistic non-tensional nationalist relations: / Preservationist realism period (1979-1982)
At that time, due to the first issues of the revolution, the attack on the US Embassy, ​​the beginning of the imposed war, political instability, the conflict of views on foreign policy (neither the East nor the West policy, fear of losing its position or prosecution Neighborhood to the West or the East), none of the officials was thinking about urban issues. Meanwhile, the problems of the city today were not very popular today in the world, and especially in our country.
2. The period of recession and distrust during the revolutionary period: The Enlightenment Enlargement period (1982-1990)
In addition to the abovementioned factors, the lack of management stability at the head of the municipality of Tehran, the lack of familiarity of urban managers with urban issues, urban diplomacy and the issue of urban sister was not discussed. The abovementioned factors have made the worthy face of Tehran and Iran not reflected in the world, and the country and the big cities and the capital of these countries are reluctant to communicate with Iran and our cities.
3. Construction Period: The Economics of Developmental Period (1990-1998)
City links were held in Tehran during the second round of the presidential election of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani and in bishkek in the capital of Kyrgyzstan in 1994. During the three years, four links were created in the field of urban sister in Tehran. It can be said that in addition to the direct impact of foreign policy on establishing such links, management stability is another factor in creating these links. It can be said that the presence of the mayor of Tehran in the government led to familiarity with the international issues and the relationship with other officials of the countries and cities, and due to the specific circumstances mentioned above, in the case of Tehran, the taboo of breaking these relations was broken.
4. The era of reform: the period of constructive and inclusive dialogue (1998-12006)
In the policy-driven developmental period of civil society development, it provided the structural and functional reform of foreign policy, and structurally increased the role of individuals rather than individuals in the decision-making process. Political and cultural development, increasing communication with other countries, and especially the European Union, as well as the past experiences of urban diplomacy and the establishment of the sister city, showing a better face than Iran and Tehran, has caused other cities in the world to establish Relations with Tehran. For six years, the authorities of Tehran's municipality were able to establish links with other cities around the world.
5. Principle Orientalism: Controversy and Conflict during the Principalists (2006-2014)
Given the events that took place in foreign policy that affected most of the micro and macro programs of the country, the issue of urban diplomacy was no exception. Considering the experiences of the previous two years in the field of urban diplomacy and the establishment of the city's sister ties, due to aggressive foreign policy during this period, the municipality of Tehran was able to create five links of urban sister with several other cities.
6- The Period of Thought and Hope (2014-2018):In this period, due to the atmosphere created in the nuclear talks and its impact on the political and economic spheres, urban authorities were able to create eight urban ties with other cities in the world. The links created in this period over the previous periods are more consistent with foreign policy.
7. Tehran City Metropolitan Diplomacy: From the 1979 to 1995 revolution, more than sixteen years of urban diplomacy and the issue of Tehran metropolitan metropolitan areas were marginalized. The first Tehran metropolitan metropolitan linkage was started in 1994, under the chairmanship of Mr. Karbaschi (Mayor of Tehran). Today, the number of Tehran-Tehran metropolitan links with other cities from different countries has reached twenty-five. Foreign policy is evidence of a strategy or a series of pre-planned actions by government decision makers that are aimed at specific goals within the framework of national interests in the international context. Urban diplomacy as a branch of public diplomacy is one of the means of strengthening foreign policy in the international arena, which governments can use as complementary rather than rival in foreign policy. In this form of diplomacy, the use of the ability of cities in the world to develop international relations and cooperation alongside international politics, in the form of urban politics and with regard to the potential of citizenship, is considered. One of the ways to strengthen urban diplomacy is to create links between cities that are referred to as "Memoirs of Urban Sisters". These links are based on a friendly and targeted relationship for the exchange of information, experiences, and the development of cultural, social, political, economic, urban and technical relationships between a urban community inside and the urban community, as well as abroad. Meanwhile, Tehran's metropolitan city has been able to connect with many cities around the world in pursuance of its urban diplomacy. The increase in the number of these links depends on the foreign policy of the various governments. Iran's foreign policy, Iran, after the revolution, was largely based on Islamic values ​​and changed its nature, and governments were also planning their foreign policy on the basis of it. The examination of Iran's foreign policy in various presidential periods suggests that some principles in presidential discourses have largely been ideological in nature and have been an integral part of foreign policy. Other words of foreign policy discourse have mainly been related to the executive branch's approach. These discourses affect all dimensions of governance (micro and macro). One of these dimensions is urban diplomacy, which can serve as a supplement to foreign policy in the form of a memorandum of understanding of the urban sister. Meanwhile, existing surveys show that although the number of links of the metropolitan sister of Tehran's metropolitan area with twenty twins was closer to Asia with eleven linkages, the tendency of governments to move toward foreign policy toward Europe With nine links, with less ties to the American continents with three links and Africa, and three links, and no link has been created between the metropolis of Tehran and the continental cities of Oceania. Accordingly, Tehran metropolitan city authorities in the four presidential periods (Hashemi Rafsanjani, Khatami, Ahmadinejad and Rouhani) had less convergence with foreign policy, but in the course of Rouhani, according to previous experiences in urban diplomacy and post-war conditions They have been able to create urban links with eight cities. Therefore, when these approaches have been realistic, global interactions and co-operation have increased, such as Hassan Rouhani's presidential term that was able to create eight urban sister cities in five years with other cities around the world, and when an ideological approach The foreign policy device has become more colorful and has increased the number of threats and decreased cooperation with the world, such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, which reduced the number of sister-city links to five in quantitative and qualitative terms.

The origin of the political-geopolitical role of water should be sought in the nature of human existence. Water is closely related to the primary nature of human (i.e, the biological aspect) and politics to his secondary nature (i.e, the social). The primary nature of human forms the biological aspect of human and his being, and it deals with the biological tools of human such as water, food, etc. Water is, therefore, considered as one of the essential requirements of human life and existence or the biological aspect of mankind. In addition, the secondary nature of human life is shaped in the social realm, wherein various social instruments—including culture, politics, etc.—give human life a social character; consequently, it can be said that politics is one of the essentials of human life. Politics in its truest sense is, nonetheless, shaped in human life within power networks. It can easily be said that the political-geopolitical role of water, before any other issues, speaks about the system of water governance with the purpose of targeted control over water resources as one of the elements and requirements of human existence. A paramount example of this is the political-geopolitical role of water in Israel’s existence. This study has tried to analyze the political-geopolitical role of water in Israel’s existence, employing a descriptive-analytical method. In this regard, it first discusses the historical process of political-geopolitical role of water in the Palestinian territories, and then analyzes the political-geopolitical role of water in Israel’s existence. The findings of this study are discussed under the following themes:The embryonic period of state building in Israel and the thirst for water (1917-1948): in this historical process, the Zionist leaders, with the support of the British government and with the previous informations to the Palestinian territories, tried to predict and design the borders of Israel so that all the water resources of this territory would be placed within its borders.
The period of Israel’s independence and the water nationalism (1948-1967): after independence and experience of the 1948 war with Arabs, Israeli government adopted a number of important laws in the framework of a nationalist approach, including the use of second-class citizen law and the Statute Act. According to these racist laws, the Israeli government’s water policies against Palestinian groups were nationalized; in other words, water nationalism, water racism or water apartheidapproach dominated the Israeli water policies.
The period of domination over water resources in occupied territories (1967-1991): this period can be described as the period of colonialism and the exploitation of water (the period of political-geopolitical domination of water resources) in Palestine. This period begins with the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War (Water War) in 1967, expressing the hydro-political-geopolitical ambitions of Israel (especially the dominance of the Golan Heights) in domestic and foreign policy.
The period of targeted diplomacy for the maximum use of water resources (after 1991): the period of the establishment of a new water order in relations with Arabs on the basis of water diplomacy, with the aim of controlling water resources, in which the various Israeli conditions for negotiating the use of water resources clearly reflect a targeted diplomacy in Israel’s domestic and foreign policy for the maximum use of available water resources. The study of this political-geopolitical mechanism shows that after the establishment of the state of Israel, drawing on various way, Israeli leaders sought to capture the water resources (the arteries of Israel’s existence) in the Palestinian and its surrounding territories. These ways include, among others, the idealization of the subject of water, the ideological approach to water, the psychological attitude to water, the definition of the development entity by water, the definition of the process of socializing by water, creating water crisis and hereby deepening the psychological-nationalist dependence on water, and also promoting the spirit of resistance among the Jews, creating the sense of place belonging through water nationalism, water racism and water apartheid, securitizing the water, use of force, threat, warfare, occupation, the expansion of Jewish areas, water exploitation, water theft, targeted role playing in the peace talks. This water (hydropolitical) monopoly and exploitation in the political-geopolitical cycle of Israeli-Arab relations (geography of power) is considered as significant features of Israel’s domestic and foreign policy. Undoubtedly, the identity and existence of every nation is firstly considered as the geographical-political essence of the territory. This identity and existence for each human group in every territory usually takes shape in view of a series of material and spiritual factors (warps and woofs of nation-building), and through a difficult process. This issue is also clearly evident in the mechanism of the existence and identity of Israel. Given the debates, it can be argued that the existence and identity of the state of Israel is limited tothe existence of water resources and control over it. In other words, it is easy to see water as the essence of the political geography of the dry and violent Palestinian/Israeli territory. However, this does not mean the negation of life in the difficult water situation in this geography; the existence of water resources has another meaning for the Jews. They did not experience living in a difficult climatic or geographic situation. From a psychological-political point of view, no factor could play an influential role as water among Jews in the creation of the sense of place belonging. When it comes to the existence of the state of Israel, water as the source of human life plays the role of blood in the human being in the mechanism of creating psychological connections. Water for immigrant Jews in the dry and violent land of Palestine/Israel (their holy homeland) created the ideal geography and territory of Zionist leaders—both psychologically and in a political mechanism.
Therefore, the existence of the state of Israel (the Jewish homeland) boils down to the mechanism of the will and desire of the Zionist leaders to establish the nation and the state of Israel. In fact, the iconographic structure of the existence of the nation of Israel was developed by the Zionist leaders; and the very essence of Zionist thoughts and ideals is linked to the geo-spiritual factor of the water. On this principle, water can be regarded as the most important feature of the existence and identity of the Zionist state. In terms of geographical-political realities, water, as a symbolic geographical factor, takes geographical-political nature in connection with the essence of the territory and nation of Israel. It gives identity to the nation and state of Israel through a difficult political-geopolitical mechanism in the political approaches of the Zionist leaders in the framework of idealization of water, water nationalism, water racism, water apartheid, water monopoly and colonialism, water imperialism, the definition of development on the axis of water, the securitizing of water, to name but a few. In other words, water can be said to have a powerful hydro-political influence on the existence and identity of Israel through a dynamic iconographic role (internal convergence) and circulational (autonomy and existential legitimacy in the outside world).

In the modern perspective, national security will not be achieved only by increasing military power. In fact it is related to the strengthening of national powers in economical, political, social and military facets, instead of limiting solely in terms of military powers. Energy Geopolitics especially Water Geopolitics would be one of the most important factors affecting national security. According to Geopolitics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as one of the largest countries in the world, in terms of very long borders, the number of neighboring countries and existence of rivers and seas, covering more than 50% of border strip has created great potential for comprehensive and sustainable development, which can improve economic, social, cultural and security indicators in the region. This study is attempted to divide the border regions based on Geopolitical and Hydro-political characteristics, and to focus on development capacities in the western border of Iran, especially in relation to the issue of the control and exploitation of water in Trans- boundary Rivers. To do this, by using existing documents, library resources, reports of the Ministry of Energy, the analysis of international practices and personal experiences, and application of System Dynamics integrated approach, stakeholders' behaviors in western border regions will be analyzed. The "sustainable development of water-based border" approach is considered as the most important factor in enhancing human and social indicators and consequently the establishment of security in the western borders of the country. Due to the abundance of water resources in the western regions of the country, the planning and development of these areas can be focused on water. In this regard, the stakeholders' behaviors for using these resources can be analyzed with the System Dynamics integrated approach. By considering all of the interactions in the western basin of Iran and considering the activity of casual loop diagrams, three types of "Shifting of the Burden archetype", "Success in the successful archetype" and "Limits to Growth archetype" were derived from this study, which can be discussed under the following themes: Based on the conceptual loop of sustainable development and the security aspects of the border regions, which one discussed in this paper, this action measures create a mechanism similar to the "Shifting the Burden archetype" which simply may have a delaying impact on the need in addressing the existing challenges. Military actions or border barriers may provide security in the short-term, but sustainable development, as a fundamental solution, guarantees security in the long-term horizon. Considering that Iran, during the eight years of the Imposed War, and also for many years up to the present, due to the existence minefields and the destruction of agricultural and residential infrastructures and migration in the border regions, have made it very difficult to use Iran’s territorial waters even in limited scales, whereas practically faced with more use of the opposite side of the border areas, which may create false water rights during these years. This behavior will be similar to the "Success to the successful archetype" and as stated, external driver and factors changing it seems necessary. The using of Trans-boundary waters and the subsequent development of the border follows the "Limits to Growth archetype". As we mentioned in this study, the growth process cannot continue forever without restriction. So it is necessary to pay attention to the water rights of the downstream riparian. Otherwise, may be encountered possible protests or tensions similar to protests against the Turkey's Gap Project. In this paper, while attempting to highlight the threats, opportunities, strengths and weaknesses of the western borders of the country, the "sustainable development of water-based border" approach is considered as the most important factor in providing security to the western border areas of the country. To do this, by using existing documents and reports in this regard, and application of System Dynamics integrated approach, existing complexities in the stakeholders' behaviors in western border regions were analyzed and three types of archetypes were extracted. These archetypes can be useful in water sector planning especially in sustainable development approach. Using these archetypes one can analyze the thought process and stockholder’s behavior in the border region systematically with regard to security issues.

Donald Trump as president of the US has adopted a revisionist approach in regards with domestic and foreign policies, which has increased uncertainties about the US strategy in world affairs. Therefore, understanding bases of his administration's attitudes toward foreign policy is so crucial for predicting changes in international and regional levels. The article tries to explain the roots of Trump's success in 2016 presidential elections and behavioral logic of the new administration in foreign policy. The main argument is: the US foreign policy under the Donald Trump administration could be categorized and explained in the context of neo-Jacksonism. This research has a historical comparative methodology to show roots of Trump’s strategy based on a comparison with different traditions of the US foreign policy. Also in other part of the article a descriptive- analytical approach has been adopted to analyze our findings in regards with Tramp’s success in 2016 presidential election.  Trump has been successful to bring major part of the middle class, heavy industries workers, less educated people and white ethno-religious groups to his camp. Majority of pro Trump people believe that the foreigners have been weakened the US and consider them as threats to their jobs & also to American values. According to our statistical findings despite of considerable socio-economic improvements in the time of Obama, the American middle and working classes had dissatisfied with their status and have joined to a kind of anti-system movement which has supported Trump. In regards with the US foreign affairs, although it has not had such an important role in 2016 presidential campaigns, we found three main pillars for Trump’s foreign policy as follows: America first, inward looking strategy and revisionism in the US foreign affairs traditions; which means revision in the US international commitments and obligations based on isolationism.Analysis
Transition from Fordism to post-Fordism and internationalization of State in the era of social atomism and risk society has been decreased the US State capacity to settlement of social conflicts. Such a situation has become more critical by and through domination of financial /casino capitalism which has created a 1% society. In this context the middle and working classes do not tolerate pressures of economic crises and join to any anti-system figure, leader, group, movement, and etc. The 2016 presidential election in the US has been a consequence of these socio- economic changes. Donald Trump as an output of this process has quite naturally adopted an isolationist inward looking foreign policy. The 2016 presidential election showed us traditional political parties which have dominated on the US politics for decades do not able to save their monopolistic supremacy anymore. In these circumstances different social classes which had not have a voice in the US politics have supported Donald Trump. In accordance with domestic politics, the US foreign policy has been shift from Obama’s regional integration, multilateralism and internationalism to Tramp’s isolationism and unilateralism in the context of a neo-Jacksonian foreign policy.

The East Asian crisis was one of the major events that caused Asian countries to suffer greatly from dependence on Western countries. After the 1997 crisis, Asia, China and Japan started a close competition in order to shape the structure of East Asian region, and are constantly pursuing intensive efforts to reach East Asian leadership. The main question of the current paper is that “how China's and Japan's efforts to dominate on the East Asian region in the form of ASEAN+3 and ASEAN+6 are evaluated?” In response to this question, the hypothesis of the article is that China and Japan, through regime-building and balancing expand their membership in the East Asian region through the development of ASEAN+3 and ASEAN+6. The current research method is descriptive-analytic. Data compilation is based on library method. All of the data needed to this article are gathered from external sources. The 1997 Asian Financial crisis has changed the structure of the region, and East Asian countries paid more attention to regionalism. The apparent change in this direction is the formation of institutions including ASEAN+3 and ASEAN+6. China, by creating ASEAN+ 3, attempts to stabilize its position in the East Asian region and pursue its objectives with various initiatives. China has been able to establish extensive trade and economic relations with ASEAN countries after two decades, and has consistently sought to support a more limited and coherent mechanism of ASEAN+3. Japan, observing the progressive influence of China in the region, has tried to use China's rival countries like India to balance its growing presence in Southeast Asia. The pursuit of this goal led to the formation of ASEAN+6 or East Asia Summit, which in addition to ASEAN+3 includes India, Australia and New Zealand. Japan has also been able to justify ASEAN with regarding to negative effects of China's growing presence for the future of region, and eventually, the ASEAN countries accepted the broader (East Asia summit) with two goals including gaining more economic benefits and balancing China, and instead the East Asia Free Trade Area (including 16 countries) named Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) adopted as the agreement of all parties. This regime has left 21 rounds of negotiations until March, 2018 and due to multiplicity of members, it is difficult to gain agreement soon. India, which is expected to become a great power in near future, is one of the main leverages of Japan to limit and counterbalance China. Each of these two regimes represents the long-term strategy of China and Japan to shape the regional structure. By looking at the extent of the influence and presence of China in the East Asian region and understanding and justifying the countries to restrict China, it seems that in regional vision, we will see more activities in the form of the East Asia Summit (ASEAN+6), but the point which is worth to mentioning is the difficulty of continuing cooperation, if there is a conflict of interests between the powers in the regime which will not be unlikely with the increasing power of the parties. It should also not be forgotten that over time and based on the experience countries can use different mechanisms, even if it occurs, to prevent disputes, peacefully. Despite these challenges, the regionalization process in East Asia has shown a positive outlook, and it seems that we will see more regional cooperation in the near future.

The Sassanid empire has provided political thought, according to the geopolitical and geopolitical status, which its interests were gained. In the present study the raised issues are that how and on what basis did the Sassanid Imperial organize politic geography of Iran plateau from 224 AD to 420 AD? And what was the effect of this space organization on their political thought? It is assumed that Sassanid Kings, after attaining to hegemony in different regions, divided geography of space according to Iran geographical diversity and its geopolitical situation compared to surrounding areas, and provided necessary political thought in order to maintain this political space and influence in different regions. In terms of the methodology, bibliographical method was used for data collecting, and the method of data analysis was content analysis and historical. The resultant data shows that the course of the geography of Iran plateau was not integrate in the first Ardeshir period and was very disorganized, so it can't be said that there was a concentrating in this period. With the development of the territory in the course of the first Shapoor, the geographic scope was split based on the three geographic layer, included divergent and convergent zones included (Iranshahr) and areas outside of Iran three geographic layers, namely Aniran, and the concept of negligible political thought was presented. From 273 AD, with the loss of areas of Iranian geographical scope, the hegemony of previous Kings became also fruitless.