نشریه مطالعات خاورمیانه
سال بیست و ششم شماره 1 (پیاپی 95، بهار 1398)

Religious disputes have become a challenging factor in the Persian Gulf region. Political disagreements among some countries in the region have led to religious disagreements and undermined relations between the regional nations. Among the eight nations in the Persian Gulf region, all are Muslims and Islam represents their official religion. There are also Shia Muslims in all of these countries. In recent years, due to religious self-awareness, the denial of the social and organizational structure in Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq (before the downfall of the Ba›ath regime), followers of the Shiite denomination have sought their rights. This has led to the Saudi and Bahraini government to mistreat them and exert physical violence against the Shiites. This paper uses a descriptive- analytical method, using library resources and internet websites to investigate challenges faced by followers of Shiite denomination in Bahrain. The main question this Article seeks to answer is: what is the situation of the Shiites in Bahrain? The results show that there are challenges faced by the Shiites in Bahrain and that relations between the Shiites and the rulers have been disrupted.

This article intends to evaluate Iran’s missile technology development and its implications for the Middle East. Iran has persistently faced growing threats because of its strategic milieu and multiple neighbors. Hence, the country has chosen deterrence strategy in which the missile technology is utmost importance. Iran has put emphasis on improvement of its missile capabilities. The main question of the article is what are the main implications of development and progress of Iran’s missile technology for the Middle East? The article tests the hypothesis, with an emphasis on descriptive-explanatory method, that the main implications of the development of Iran’s missile technology relate to Israel and GCC countries. While Israel uses missile and anti-missile systems in order to respond to Iran’s missile development, the GCC countries have emphasized security and military alliances with transregional powers, especially the United States and have used missile its defense umbrella.

The Syrian crisis has been on the spotlight of the regional and international press. One of the countries whose positions towards the Syrian crisis are important is the United States. So the question of this paper is: What are the principles and objectives of U.S. foreign policy toward Syria? What is the difference between Obama’s and Trump’s approach to the crisis? In response to this question, the research hypothesis suggests that by pursuing such objectives as the policy of containing China and Russia, guaranteeing free flow of oil and energy, maintaining Israel›s security and containing Iran’s regional power influence, the Americans seek to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s government and to restructure power structure in Syria. The research findings show that Trump will change Obama’s limited intervention policy to direct military intervention in Syria. Although he first presented his priority as the internal issues of the United States, he is not reluctant to try some symbolic measures for American power projection in the region and this adventure can be dangerous. This article uses a descriptive-analytical method, drawing upon the theory of aggressive realism for analyzing U.S. behavior.

In recent decades, international scholars have been focusing on new issues that have played a significant role in shaping new policies at the regional and international levels, despite their initial non-political nature. Environmental issues and water scarcity are among such novel issues. Water problems, despite their global dimensions, have not become security-political questions anywhere on earth other than in the Middle East, affecting national and regional policies of the regional countries. The findings suggest that two phenomena of rising temperatures and shortage in short-term and long-term rainfall will pose fundamental challenges to the environmental security of countries. In addition to these factors, issues such as inefficient, traditional and small-scale management, and the culture of consumption and speculative domination of parts of societies have led to the decline of the country›s biological foundations, which are indicative of the destruction of forests, the drying of wetlands and permanent rivers, urban air pollution, burning of forests and pastures, changing land use and soil erosion. This paper is an attempt to identify the roots, dimensions and prospects of water crisis and drought and how to manage it in the Middle East. However, the available data suggest that the Middle Eastern countries are vulnerable to environmental threats and are unable to cope with the threat alone because of this, and have not yet been able to achieve an efficient regional organization.

The Middle East developments over the past year have led to a prospect of fear and hope for the future of the region. ISIS›s defeats in Iraq and Syria have made the prospects of restoring stability to the region clearer. Despite the hopes created by end of ISIS and the other terrorist groups, there are realities that illustrate the great difficulties of achieving regionalism within the framework of international relations. The positive results of regionalism in the field of international relations have caused regionalism in the Middle East to become an important issue in recent years, which needs further investigation. In this research, the influence of terrorism on Middle East regionalism has been examined. The question of this research is: what is the effects of the rise of terrorism in the Middle East particularly the ISIS on the regionalism process in the region? In response to the question, the hypothesis is that the rise of ISIS has created dual coalitions and divergence instead of strengthening ideas and actions for counterterrorism in the regional countries. It arises from regional rivalry among the actors and their conflicting interests.

After the Security Council›s inability to address and deal with the military attack of North Korea on South Korea (1950), due to repeated vetoes of the Soviet Union, the United Nations General Assembly prepared the ground for the intervention of the General Assembly by adopting Resolution 377, known as ‘Uniting for Peace’ Resolution. This resolution implies that in the absence of the consensus among the permanent members of the Security Council for taking appropriate measures in some cases the obligation of maintenance of international peace and security rests with the UN General Assembly. These cases include a threat to peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression. In such a situation, the General Assembly is required to make the necessary recommendations, including the use of military force to members of the United Nations. In addition to the Korean war, the General Assembly, based on this resolution, has made the necessary recommendations in eleven cases including the Suez Canal crisis, the case of the Congo and Namibia. Although this resolution was adopted more than six decades ago, the resolution deserves to be studied because of its importance and the possibility of its application in the current unresolved crises, including the Syrian conflict. It seems, considering the critical situation in Syria such as terrible crimes, killing and displacement of civilians, the United Nations especially the Security Council must make decisions and act seriously. After a long time from the beginning of the Syrian crisis, the Security Council has not reached a comprehensive agreement yet to resolve the crisis. Perhaps the Security Council is unaware of its primary responsibility which is maintaining international peace and security. But it is caught in the scene of conflict between two blocks of the east and the west.