فصلنامه مطالعات آسیای مرکزی و قفقاز
پیاپی 115 (پاییز 1400)

Energy security is a cornerstone of foreign policy of the great powers. Energy resources of the Caspian Sea and Central Asia as two critical geopolitical areas are of great importance for regional and trans-regional states. Due to the huge opportunities these two regions present out of the OPEC context, they have appeared as a large chess board. Aimed at energy security and providing diversity of resources, the Caspian region is a great competition scene for players like the US, China, the EU, Russia, Iran, and India. There exists a great game of oil policies and pipeline diplomacies in this region. The present article aims to provide answer for the question what are the challenges and opportunities of the great powers plans in the Central Asia and Caspian for Iran and what are the policy options of Iran to tackle the Challenges? Iran’s policy options in this rivalry is to make efforts to get rid of the sanctions, adopt an economic diplomacy, strengthen domestic infrastructures in order to implement economic activities in the region, contribute to economic plans of great powers in the region and economic investment and partnership with the regional countries in bilateral and multilateral frameworks.

In the post-Soviet era, the Caspian Sea region changed the nature from a pure geographical region to a geopolitical region with vital importance for the coastal states. Considering the mutual relations among geography, politics and power in this region, the geopolitical foundations with a spectrum of constant and variable factors can influence the national security of each of the coastal states. Considering the fact that such geopolitical foundations would increase the regional states confrontation with the opportunities and challenges of the region, the main question in this article is what opportunities and challenges does the geopolitical foundations of the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran entail for this country? The hypothesis of the research is that the geopolitical foundations of the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran would bring the opportunity of convergence and co-supplementation with the Caspian coastal states from one hand, and the challenge of being impacted by the constant and variable geographical factors, from the other. This paper will adopt the descriptive-analytical method to verify the hypothesis.

The China’s Belt & Road initiative, impacted the process of policy planning of the target countries. The pivotal question of this paper is how has the Belt & Road Initiative impacted Iran’s policy planning? What factors have changed Iran’s strategy towards the Belt & Road Initiative? The findings of the paper show that Iran’s pivot to East is a sign of the country’s strategy toward this initiative. This impact is evident in Iran-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Programme on the macro level and in transportation sector in practical level. How and why Belt & Road Initiative affected Iran’s policy-making in the 11th and 12th administrations within the framework of “Theory of Alliance of Interests” is analyzed in the paper. This approach describes the change of policy arising from two factors of “ external fluctuations and shocks on the policy system” , and “ learning practice of policy-makers in the process of decision-making”.

Turkey-Azerbaijan relations, a year after the 2nd Karabakh War, has taken complicated military, political and regional dimensions. Holding several joint military drills between Turkey and Azerbaijan has drawn attention of media circles and caused security concerns for some neighboring countries. In the Karabakh dispute, Turkey’s role in support of Azerbaijan for entering a new war with Armenia was deciding. This policy makes question about Turkey’s goals in supporting Azerbaijan in the war with Armenia. Turkey’s foreign policy since 2016 onward and after military interference in Syria has taken an aggressive aspect. It seems that Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan in the Karabakh dispute and the pace of events afterwards, are the continuation of the policy of militarism in surrounding perimeter. The authors of the present article believe that by indirect interference in the Karabakh dispute, Turkey pursues expansion of influence in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. In examination of Turkey’s foreign policy in the Karabakh dispute, realism and aggressive realism in particular are the theoretical bases.

Culture and cultural elements are important variables of international relations and contemporary scholars have emphasized the role of cultural issues in politics. Cultural diplomacy is an outstanding example of the soft power to pave the way for influence in others through culture, values, and ideas. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s relations with the Russian Federation have seen considerable expansion in many areas in recent years. Although the scale of relations is more evident in some areas as politics, security, and even economy, the growing trend in the cultural, social and human areas can also be seen. In present article, while reviewing Iran’s cultural activities in Russia, Iranian cultural diplomacy approach is studied. The authors will try to answer the question which elements of soft power are more applied in Iran’s cultural relation with Russia. In doing so, by looking into the major activities carried out by the Iranian cultural counselors and other cultural foundations in Russia, their roles in expanding cultural relations of two countries are assessed. The research method of this paper is qualitative analysis of content within the theoretical framework of the theory of soft power and cultural diplomacy.

The 2014 Ukraine crisis which started by Russia pressuring Ukraine not to join the free trade agreement with the EU and ultimately led to the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula to the Russian Federation, flamed the tension between Russia and the West. The implications of the annexation and the mutual sanctions by Russia and the West resulted in downgrading relations to the lowest level in last 25 years. This situation conjured up the Cold War conflicts and rivalries. The main goal of this paper is to answer the question what are the consequences of annexation of Crimea by Russia and the subsequent sanctions for the actors involved in the 2014 Ukrainian crisis? The findings of the present article utilizing international political economy show that the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation and the following sanctions have had a host of negative consequences for Ukraine, Russia, the EU, the US, and the NATO in various dimensions.