فصلنامه پژوهش های راهبردی سیاست
پیاپی 30 (پاییز 1398)

The proliferation of political Structure and the activation of social cleavages led Iran to an exacerbating process of electoral competition in the past two decades. Despite the positive functions of elections in Iran, the dark sides of this process are less known. Elections in Iran has led to an increase in the internal conflicts of political system, created very severe discontinuities in the policy- making process, paved the way for activating and intensifying social cleavages (especially ethnic and religious cleavages), and formed a kind of Sponsorship-based policy making and intensify the economic corruption of politicians. One of the main negative consequences of this process is delegitimizing the electoral process. The role of delegitimizing has been linked to the anti-developmental role of elections in Iran. From the viewpoint of the pathology of democratic processes and the effort to improve the quality of electoral mechanisms, it is important to understand such dimensions. “Completion of the institutional chain of electoral politics” is a proposed framework for reforming these processes.

The purpose of the present study is to explain the silent threatening points in national macro policy in Iran and how these threatening issues are included in the policy calendar of policy makers. Iran's policy system seems to be influenced by normative, democratic approaches, scientific achievements and stakeholder interests in the "political calendar" section. Destructive threats are introduced into the system, which may be supported by the system itself with civil society, and the main focus of the research is to explain how these dormant cancers are activated and to propose a policy to address them. Theoretical Framework The present research is the theory of functional systems.
Using a causal explanation research method, the researcher explains how social threats can be activated by unnecessary policy interventions. The researcher uses the library method and documents to explain how threatening social issues are entered into the policy calendar of policy makers and causal relations of policy interventions and activation of potential threats in Iran. The problem-solving strategy is “problem pathology” and "the legal administrative" view to problem to provide a solution. An important solution to the problem is also institutional refinement.

Border Rivers, as one of the most important natural terrain, are always the source of many differences in relations between states. The Hirmand River is the main artery of the Hamoon Lake, the borderline between Iran and Afghanistan, which has caused many border controversies between the two countries to this day. Failure of Afghanistan's to adhere to 1973 agreement to provide the water right of the Hirmand River, and hence the land of Hamoon, as a lake that Sistan's life is dependent on, has exacerbated the increasing challenges in the Sistan region. There has been a lot of negotiation between Iran and Afghanistan. Authors intend to answer the question of what are the strategies of diplomacy for providing the water right to the Hirmand River between Iran and Afghanistan. In the framework of game theory, in the first stage, the Hirmand Water Crisis should be considered as an important priority in the field of Iranian policy. Then, in the process of negotiations between Iran and Afghanistan based on diplomacy, the rationality of actors, Afghanistan’s access to the Chabahar port and the provision of the Hirmand water right as the point of equilibrium and the best option for both countries.

The accumulation of values as an ideal with the realities of existence, in taking strategic decisions of the system in various cultural, political, social, and economic fields ... is one of the most important issues which has attracted the minds of many elites since the early revolution. Regarding the importance of this issue, the purpose of this article is to explain and analyze the character of the realistic idealism (two basic components of the wise decision making model) in the strategic decisions of Imam Khomeini since 1357 to 68. Since this feature of Imam's leadership has not been scientifically investigated so far, In this research, the strategic decisions of Imam Khomeini in the domain of research are selected and the categories related to the two features of idealism and realism, using quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the words of Imam contained in 22 volumes of Imam Khomeini Sahifeh, extraction, classification, analysis and inference Has been done. The findings of the research show that all the strategic decisions studied in this study were within the framework of the wise decision-making features and has two components of idealism and realism. Thus, it can be concluded with certainty that Imam Khomeini, in making strategic decisions, was a realistic idealist.

Noticing the media efforts of Islamophobia and the creation of a disproportionate image of Islam, the purpose of this paper is presenting perfect image of Islam in Press TV. The two letters of Iranian supreme leader to the youth of EU&USA and other statements related to the subject gathered for the content analysis method. The outputs of the first step categorized in 15 molds and 7 overall topics (Phobia making, history and civilization, true Islam, current problems, Islam and other ideologies, Islam and the Westand the West Society). By this step, 30 experts of media and religion field targeted to taking a semi- structured interview. After analyzing the qualitative content of the interview texts, the output derived of this step divided in two parts: Assessing the present condition of Press TV and offering the suitable strategies for its content management. Proposed strategies were categorized and summarized in three areas: the programing (audience research, content creation, message distribution and feedback), the planning (in or out of Press TV), and organizational structure (human resources, TV’s organizational issues and so problems of channel). Finally, the media cycles which presented by this research recommended for Press TV in order to take an effective media strategy due to studying media and its language.

Politics in its general sense is abstract-practical knowledge because it was in the first glance, better management of the city and society. This knowledge sought to understand the ends and objectives of the government, and also to seek the means to achieve those goals. Although its theoretical aspect has become more prominent today, this knowledge is essentially applied and problem-oriented. This utilitarianism, which is the dominant concept of political thought in the West, has emerged most of all in American society through the combination of past meanings and the birth of the concept of legalism. Political scientists in the United States, and even activists who formulate the legal and political foundations of the US government, adopted important elements of its four religious, philosophical, Anglo-Saxon and institutional roots. They formulated these elements, mainly in the context of European society, in a new system of law. The rule of law, the pursuit of material welfare in the context of public participation and satisfaction, and the centrality of material and economic welfare have led to important results that have led to the foundation of knowledge on empirical foundations and methods and ultimately to the emergence of applied knowledge from its inevitable consequences.

The center of gravity of the world economy is shifting from the West to the Asian continent with China. China's new Silk Road initiative is one of the most important indicators of the shift in centrality. The key question is what strategy has Europe taken towards the Silk Road initiative? The research hypothesis suggests that European countries are skeptical about China's true aims and intentions in presenting the Silk Road initiative. In this regard, Europe seeks to pursue China's strategy of assimilating and then controlling it through prudent cooperation with China to advance the plan. The findings of the study showed that, from the perspective of the European Union, although China is trying to be transparent about its strategy, the purpose of the Silk Road strategy for cooperation with the European Union or some European countries has not been specified. The European Union believes China's approach is to trade unilaterally and export goods to Europe. The research topic is examined in accordance with the theoretical framework of the Beijing Consensus. The method of measuring and examining the subject is a descriptive-analytical method.

Since 1945, western countries and specially the United States have tried to secure their international interests by establishing international economic institutions, regional security organizations and dissemination of liberal political norms, Known as international liberal order. But in recent years this order has been challenged by some newly emerged powers such as China. Inabilities in administration of some international affairs such as international order, global economy and terrorism have weakened west position more. This fact has risen an important question: what would be the future of international liberal order and whether we should expect emerge of a new international order as a replacement for liberal order in the future? With the aim of investigating statues of liberal international order in current situation and in the shadow of newly international emerged powers such as China, the article have put two questions forward: what is the view point of China to the current international liberal order and how the county efforts in regional institutional building specially in Central Asia could be analyzed? The finding of the research reveals that Chain is just interested to revise the current order and the country institution building effort is a part of its plan for this revision.

Leaving the Middle East by US ground troops and its concurrency with bolder presence of US western allies and more equipping of its regional allies, indicated a change in the approach of US toward the Middle East as a result of Pivot to Asia strategy. Therefore, this paper raises its main research question that “what is the new policy and strategy of US toward the Middle East? And how this strategy would be for fighting with terrorist groups with focus on ISIS?” The current study has applied a descriptive analysis method and has investigated US strategy towards the Middle East by using the theory of “Offshore Balancing Strategy”. It is concluded that some factors such as the absence of ground troops, transference of costs to other allies and delegation of duty, multilateralism and … are regarded as the main elements of new strategy of US. As a result, using local forces, regional allies, light footprint strategy and some cooperation  like  aerial cooperation against ISIS, equipping and instructing the troops, using  navy and specific forces and utilizing the drones and  rockets and… will be from the first priorities and choices of US.