فصلنامه روابط خارجی
پیاپی 56 (زمستان 1401)

Normalizing relations between Arabs and Israel is the on of the most complicated issues in the Middle East that is connected with the great powers and most of countries in the region. Iran is one of the countries that is severly threatened in the process of normalization of relations between Israel and the Arabs. Since the formation of the modern Middle East after second World War, the Arabs continuesly had confronted with two major threat; first, threat of creation of independent Jewish country in the Arabs territories and the second, threat of shiite reveloutionary Iran that has tended to export its ideas and concepts to the Arab world. The main question of the article is the why the Arabs have proceded to normalization of their relations with Israel while they feel threatened by both of above developments? This article with focus on descriptive-explanative method and using a threat balance approach argues that the main reason of the normalization of relations, on the one hand can be found in continiously increasing level of Iran s threat against the Arabs and in the other hand, in the decrease in severity of Israel s threats against them. As a result, the normalization of relations between them has occurred due to Iran s simultaneous threat to the Arabs and Israel.

“Look to East” strategy has become one of the main themes related to the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in recent years. Despite the repeated emphasis on this strategy, one of the main problems in this field is the lack of a precise explanation and different definitions of the word "East". On the other hand, in recent decades, and especially after the beginning of the new millennium, we have witnessed the rise of Asia and the increasing role of the Asian countries in international relations. The question posing itself is whether it is possible to forge a bridge between look to east and rise of Asia. The investigations of the current research under the descriptive-analytical method and based on library sources presented a new reading of looking to the East, categorized under the policy of "pivot to Asia" or more specifically “Asianization”. In addition, it became clear that this policy is a global trend that has been implemented in different countries of the world. Finally, by examining the history of Look to East policy in the Islamic Republic of Iran, it became clear that the strategy is the most likely option that the foreign policy apparatus of the Islamic Republic of Iran will pursue, at least in the next few years.

Due to its special situation, the Caspian region has been influenced by the political action of coastal and extra-regional actors. The geopolitics of this region and its effective foundations mutually give direction and meaning to the behaviour of the actors. The entanglement of three categories - geography, politics and power and the resulting forms of behaviour have created the question of what effect do the geopolitical foundations of the Caspian legal regime have on the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In addition, the impact of geopolitical factors has consequences for the Islamic Republic of Iran which has brought about this research and which is also the search for truth. The following text is of a descriptive/analytical nature and a documentary/library foundation with the theoretical application of foundations and geo-political factors. The output of the research shows that geopolitics and its foundations, while creating the behavioural pattern of "opportunity" for the Islamic Republic of Iran, has provided the behavioural pattern of "insecurity" for this country. To be more precise, the geopolitics of the Caspian legal regime and its foundations, despite creating some opportunities for the Islamic Republic of Iran, the national security of this coastal player in the context of the geographical location and territorial space in the context of historical and civilizational developments, characteristics and the natural nature of the coastal area, territories and access to the sea and the territorial extent of the maritime country have been overshadowed and challenged.

The main issue of this research is what the security consequences of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan will be for the Islamic Republic of Iran, because with the withdrawal of America and its allies, a group with a special mindset called the Taliban has dominated this country, which supports the groups Terrorist, especially al-Qaeda, is in his portfolio. With the dominance of the Taliban and the lack of a strong political structure and the unclear future of this country and the type of views and decisions of the Taliban affected by the influence of some actors, it can have security consequences, including the beginning of the activities of Takfiri and terrorist groups in Afghanistan and the continuation of infiltration and operations inside follow the soil of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Therefore, the importance of maintaining and improving national security is the main priority for the Republic of Afghanistan in relation to Afghanistan.In this research, with the method of collecting information through library sources, structured interviews with experts and observation of reliable sites with the benefit of the descriptive-analytical analysis method, to examine the security consequences of the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan on the Islamic Republic of Iran, emphasizing The expansion of the movements of Takfiri and terrorist groups has been discussed.

The current study intends to examine the phenomenon of sanctions and its sustainability from an alternative perspective and based on that, explain the new road map of Iran's economic diplomacy. The question of the current research is whether the is solely due to the conflict between Iran and the Western bloc or whether we should include another factor in the issue of the permanence of the sanction in our analysis. To answer this question, a descriptive-analytical method has been used and three results have been obtained as follows, and these results are considered to be the contribution to the current research: a. The possibility of sanctioning Iran was created in 2012 because the strategic relationship between Iran and the West in the oil case (oil exports to the Western bloc and imports of development materials) was disturbed. b. The sanction is basically a geo-economic issue and a manifestation of the conflict between geopolitical spheres; It is a strategic mistake to consider the sanctions as a result of the conflict between Iran and the america. c. Iran's geography is an important factor in the sustainability of the sanctions due to its location at the critical point of the formation of the new world order. Based on the above results, the exact answer to the saction is "exiting the oil life and new placement in the international arena". In this new multi-dimensional approach, the challenges imposed on Iran by sanctions are now being resolved under multiple cases.

There is a dynamic approach in the field of analyzing foreign policy-making of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which we have called it as the Pathological Approach. From this point of view, the researchers describe the current situation in the first step. Then, they seek to recognize the pathologies influencing the foreign policy-making process and finally, recommend policy advices intend to help policymakers that to reduce the rate of incorrect decisions. In order to identify and introduce this approach systematically, this paper has selected 8 analysts who are well known in the field of foreign policy analysis of I. R. of Iran and has conducted a Qualitative Meta-Analysis. The sample is 17 texts of them following a single theme as “Evaluating diplomatic apparatus performance of the Islamic Republic of Iran”. The findings indicate that there are three groups of Pathogenicity factors including perceptual/cognitive, institutional/structural and environmental/societal pathologies that influence foreign policy-making process of Islamic Republic of Iran. Authors have concluded that identified approach is affected by assumptions of the Rational Actor Model, as a model of foreign policy decision- making.

This article examines the optimal strategy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in managing trade relations with China and answers this question: considering the high level of trade relations between the United States and China and the increase in conflicts and the emergence of an economic war between these two countries, what will be the optimal strategy of Iran in managing economic relations with China. The main hypothesis of the research is that: the decline of US economic power and the rise of China's economic power and in the same time emergence of the US-China trade war has provided a very good opportunity for Iran to develop trade relations with China on order to neutralize the pressure of US sanctions. Using the game theory method, the research models the Iran-China trade relationship and analyzes Iran's optimal strategy. The results show that the best strategy of Iran is development of trade relations with China with the aim of gaining concessions from the West, as well as improving the country's economic situation and circumventing sanctions and for the china with the aim of gaining concessions from the West and also expanding its soft power in the West Asian region. If one of the parties has a strategy of severing cooperation in order to satisfy the West, the other party will choose such a strategy and the game will reach a new balance in which the utility of both countries will be very low.

The situation in Afghanistan has a geopolitical status and its events attract the attention of the world's great powers. Military offensives, arbitrary detentions, forced relocations, intimidation, insecurity, and the disenfranchisement of Afghan women, children, and men were some of the actions that took place in August 2021 when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.However, the sovereignty of a state must include a commitment to protect those under its authority. When a government does not fulfill this commitment, it must expect the reaction of the international community. This article seeks to describe the recent situation in Afghanistan in a descriptive and analytical manner, emphasizing the need for the Taliban to fulfill their human rights obligations to the Afghan people, Introduce the possibility of applying the doctrine of protection responsibility as a way to end the plight of Afghans, Finally, it becomes clear that the responsibility to protect requires a positive commitment inherent in the traditional concept of sovereignty of states. Sovereignty is not only a right but also a responsibility under which a state is committed to safeguarding and respecting the rights of those under its jurisdiction. In this way, in the dialectical relationship between sovereignty on the one hand and human values on the other, the antithesis of the responsibility of protection can be presented.