International Journal of Political Science
Volume:11 Issue: 4, Autumn 2021

The spread of the Coronavirus and its biological, political, economic, and global concerns, which have affected massive interactions and exchanges, indicate that threats to public health are part of the security dilemma; And the need for an accurate understanding of it today goes beyond academic debates and scientific books and articles. These threats, whether artificial or in the form of biological weapons, as well as random and surprising, can give new formulation to collective life, decisions and policies. The pervasiveness of the Corona crisis in the world, in addition to theories of international relations, has also posed new challenges to the security of the international system. On the one hand, part of the knowledge in the field of public health has reached the field of humanities and specifically international relations; On the other hand, the debate within the paradigm of the field over the concept of international security, globalization, and its future has reached its peak. The question of international relations thinkers about what the post-Covid world order will be like and what kind of security it requires different answers depending on their theoretical approach. It seems that the current state of the world has led to different views and different answers due to the uncertainty of conditions, effects, approaches, and perspectives. This difference of opinion is not only due to differences in the way they look at human nature and the nature of society and their approach to international politics and security; Rather, the issue is a bit more ambiguous, and the coordinates of the current situation and its paradoxical nature provide evidence to various schools of thought with different views on international relations and the system that governs it. This article tries to examine international security in the post-corona world.

Public policy is the main function of government; The most important issue in public policymaking is the support of the people for policies that create, recreate, strengthen and sustain the legitimacy and support of the government. Public opinion is one of the pillars influencing public policy. The media, civic organizations, university professors, political and social activists, and journalists represent public opinion. The elites in these groups influence the policymaking process by presenting the problems and demands of the people, proposing solutions, making decisions and participating in policy choices, evaluating policies and their effects. The subject of this article is to examine the impact of elites in changing Iran's strategy in the China belt and road initiative Plan. The Comprehensive 25-Year Strategic Partnership Agreement between Iran and China and the extensive participation in the belt and road initiative are seen as turning Iran's policy eastward. The main question of the article is what is the opinion of political and social elites on Iran's strategy in the belt and road initiative? How do they evaluate Iran's policy in this plan? From the point of view of public policy, what effect did the elites have on the rotation of Iranian policy to the east and the adoption of a strategy of active participation in the belt and road initiative? In answer to the above questions and other possible questions, the hypothesis of the article is that the opinion of social elites is in line with the strategy of developing Iran's interactions with the East and active presence in the belt and road initiative. The reaction of the elites as a representation of public opinion and its impact on the government's decision to change the strategy in the belt and road initiative plan is explained in the framework of the Defender Coalition theory. Findings of the research were obtained through surveys, detailed interviews and limited questionnaires.

Public Consistency in reactions to human rights violations is an essential part of any normative foreign policy. Human rights abusers usually exploit these cases to delegitimize international norms and cover up their abuses. This usually happens when cases of violations are similar, but the reactions are different, due to some geopolitical concerns. Crimean Tatars and Xinjiang Uyghurs are two Muslim minorities that have a kind of confrontation with two nonwestern rising powers, Russia and China. The article investigates the EU's reactions to these two cases of human rights violations by looking into documents, statements, press releases, and speeches. It is normally expected that the EU pays more attention to the Crimean Peninsula, as it is so close to Europe‘s homeland. However, despite some slight nuances, the EU maintained a passable rate of consistency in its normative foreign policy which has not been affected by geopolitical concerns and differences are explicable by normative concerns.

The article seeks to examine the relationship between the agent and the international structure in the foreign policy of the second Pahlavi. This article tries to study, analyze and scrutinize on the effect of structure and agent as two intertwined concepts in the literature of structuralism and constructivism on the strategy of the second Pahlavi foreign policy and seeks to answer the question that How can be explained the effect of structure and agent on Iran's foreign policy during the second Pahlavi era? The hypothesis of the article is that during second Pahlavi the agent has been mostly influenced by the structure of the international system because Mohammad Reza Shah in his foreign policy strategy due to the lack of political legitimacy and lack of popular base tried to seek advantageous relations with one of superpowers in the bipolar international structure. In this article, through a descriptive-analytical method, we analyze the fluctuations and cycles of the second Pahlavi foreign policy strategy according to the relationship between the agent and the structure. The findings of this article indicate that maintaining close relations with the West has been the feature of Mohammad Reza Shah's foreign policy that can be examined in different periods. Extensive relations with the United States in the economic, political, military, and cultural fields have been the manifestations of Second Pahlavi's closeness to one of the power poles in the international structure. Although several periods can be distinguished during second Pahlavi foreign policy, we can say that relations between the structure and the agent have not witnessed some challenges during the Pahlavi era.

Since the immemorial time, the concept of freedom is one of the fundamental concepts which have had numerous effects on human lives. Many people suffered countless tortures or were jailed and sent to exile or even lost their lives due to freedom. Nevertheless, freedom can be considered to imply having volition and autonomy in practice and doing things; in a way that no one would force anyone to do anything which is not his desired action. Thus, freedom implies having the ability to do or refuse to do something. Generally speaking, freedom can be regarded as a general law which dominates the whole domain of life. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke are two main theoreticians of social contract who offered different views of the notion of freedom. The study of the view of these two theoreticians of freedom is necessary because one of them is the father of the idea of totalitarianism while the other is the founding father of liberalism. The current research is conducted using descriptive and analytic method and assays the ideas of these two philosophers concerning the notion of freedom within the context of their works.

Since the immemorial time, the concept of freedom is one of the fundamental concepts which have had numerous effects on human lives. Many people suffered countless tortures or were jailed and sent to exile or even lost their lives due to freedom. Nevertheless, freedom can be considered to imply having volition and autonomy in practice and doing things; in a way that no one would force anyone to do anything which is not his desired action. Thus, freedom implies having the ability to do or refuse to do something. Generally speaking, freedom can be regarded as a general law which dominates the whole domain of life. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke are two main theoreticians of social contract who offered different views of the notion of freedom. The study of the view of these two theoreticians of freedom is necessary because one of them is the father of the idea of totalitarianism while the other is the founding father of liberalism. The current research is conducted using descriptive and analytic method and assays the ideas of these two philosophers concerning the notion of freedom within the context of their works.

The North African region, with emphasis on the countries of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, is one of the most important regions in the world. This region can be considered one of the most important regions in interaction with the West Asia region; which is not only affected by the political, security, social and economic equations of the West Asian complex, but also has decisive effects on these equations. This article is trying to provide a recognizable criterion for evaluating the performance of the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in North Africa in Ahmadinejad and Rouhani governments (with emphasis on Egypt, Libya and Tunisia) by relying on the theoretical framework of constructivism and the SWOT analysis method. The main question of this research is: How was the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in North African countries (with emphasis on Egypt, Libya and Tunisia) between 2005 and 2021? The main hypothesis states that; The behavior of the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards the developments in North African countries is inspired by internal, regional and international calculations in which ideology and national power play a prominent role. Based on this, Iran tried to adopt a trend in its foreign policy in its strategic calculations that would be effective in the developments of the North African region and defend its ideological interests. But the available data shows that it has not been very successful in achieving this goal.

Mohammad Reza Shah had a long way to go before he became an alternative to authoritarianism for his father. And for this and other reasons, after September 1941 until the 1953 coup, Iranian society did not have a chance to expand, and Iranian society found itself in a situation where it could breathe new life into the vacuum of Reza Shah's dictatorial and repressive power; And political and social activities entered a new era. It is widely believed that one of the shortest periods in the history of Iran, in which relative freedoms were provided and, if continued, could lead to the political development of stability; Is the first twelve years of the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah. The present article intends to create opportunities and conditions for Iran's political development between 1953 and 1941, meaning the occupation of Iran by the Allies and the resignation of Reza Shah until the coup of August 19th, 1953. The research method is descriptive-analytical with emphasis on historical approach. The method of collecting information and data includes library studies and filing from reliable sources and written historical evidence. The results show that in the mentioned period, due to the vacuum caused by the fall of Reza Shah and the sharp decline of his tyrannical power, the inexperience of the young Shah, as well as the decline of the undisputed power of British colonialism, ideal conditions were provided for political development in Iran; But some internal and external factors hindered this development.