نشریه پژوهش های روابط بین الملل
سال سیزدهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 50، پاییز 1402)

Abraham Accords by facilitating the normalization of relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain paved the way for Israel's presence in the strategic region of the Persian Gulf. One of the reasons for Israel's presence in the Persian Gulf is the common perception of Iran's threat by Israel and the countries of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council. Therefore, Israel's presence in the Persian Gulf has a security-political reason. Israel and other allied actors in the Persian Gulf are looking for a response to the common security concern. Therefore, in this paper, we are looking to analyze the issue of Israel's presence in the Persian Gulf and its impact on the security equations of the Persian Gulf from an analytical perspective. For this purpose, in the course of this article, we will seek to answer the question of how Israel's presence in the Persian Gulf affects the political-security equations of this region. According to the above question, the authors using the descriptive-analytical method have reached the hypothesis that "Israel's presence in the Persian Gulf and its leadership alliance with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain can lead to instability and militarization of the Persian Gulf region, changing the political-security position of the participating actors in cooperation with Israel and intensify domestic and regional security competition in Persian Gulf."

Economic diplomacy is quite important in China and Japan foreign policy. As a defeated country in the II world war, Japan had to follow US liberal development policies, while communist China opted for an indigenous development pattern. later changing to "market socialism "during the reform process. In the XXI century, both countries chose an active economic diplomacy with rather different outcomes. Being global top trader and second economy, Japan had to concede both position to China which became the new superpower because of its impressive economic achievements after its trade revolution as a consequence of its membership in the World Trade Organization. This article is to respond to the question that "What role economic diplomacy plays in China and Japan foreign policy, and what factors have influenced different results?"To respond the question, the hypothesis is based on the opinion that economic diplomacy is quite elevated in both countries' foreign policy, but because of a stronger government role in China's economy and its development oriented foreign policy, China has been able to secure tangible strategic results, while Japan's market oriented economy and government support for its keiretsus and Zaibatsus has gradually lost the competition. The present research has been developed using qualitative methodology, in which countries’ policies, programs and data have been used comparatively to prove the hypothesis.

The European Union is the largest donor of development aid in the world by providing about the half of global development aid by its members. Meanwhile, the biggest recipients are mostly found among the neighbors of the European Union. The main question of this research is: What role does the securitization of immigration play in European Union's development aid? The main hypothesis states the European Union's development aid has shifted its function from the poverty alleviation to the migration control due to the securitization of immigration. In this research, the qualitative method and statistical analysis with the documentary method as the method of collecting data are used within the theoretical framework of Buzan and Weaver’s securitization theory. The results of this research indicate that development aid has become a tool of the European Union's foreign policies in line with the migration securitization discourse, and the quality and quantity of the aid are both affected by the security concerns of the EU members. In fact, the migration securitization discourse has moved from the national to the supranational level in the European Union, and due to the amendments made in the Lisbon Treaty for the sake of a common security and foreign policy under the management of the European External Action Service and budgeting the development aid, development policy has been undermined and hollowed out by diverting its focus from poverty alleviation to migration crisis management.

With the collapse of the bipolar system and the intensification of America's hostility against Iran, the orientation towards the East in foreign policy became Iran's strategic priority. In the meantime, facing threats from the West and wishing to form a multipolar world, Iran has abandoned its historical rivalry with Russia and has recently expressed positions beyond the "Looking East" approach in the Ukraine war.This article tries to answer these questions: Under the influence of what components has Iran's foreign policy been formed in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine? To what extent is it in line with Iran's national goals and long-term interests?In response, it can be said that Iran interprets Russia's invasion as the beginning of a transformation in the international system with the emergence of new blocs and alliances, which gives Tehran the opportunity to get out of isolation and become an actor in the world arena. For the Islamic Republic, the all-out support of Moscow in the Ukraine war is part of a single strategy for participation and use of the emerging international order. By measuring the opportunities and threats of the Ukraine crisis, this article recommends that Iran, by adopting a cautious approach in supporting Russia, avoids provoking Western governments and keeps the country away from being exposed to wider sanctions and pressures. The article examines Iran's foreign policy in the Ukraine war with a qualitative approach and within the framework of neoclassical realism theory.

Europe witnessed the largest military conflict since World War II when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Examining the internal events and divisions of this country on the one hand, as well as examining the changes in Ukraine in the interactions between Russia and America and the European Union countries, on the other hand, can be useful in explaining the and military confrontation between Russia and Ukraine. In this article, using the components of the aggressive realism theory, the contexts and factors of Russia's military intervention in Ukraine, as well as the role of other effective powers, namely the United States and the European Union, in the formation of this crisis and its continuation will be investigated. The main question is, what role did each of the effective actors play in the formation of the Ukraine crisis and its continuation? The hypothesis of the research is that the expansion of NATO to the east over several decades and the lack of balance in relations with the East and the West by the authorities of Kiev, as well as Russia's attempt to increase its share of global power and regain its former power in order to become a hegemon. Europe has provided the grounds for the formation of the crisis. The continuation of this crisis was also due to the adoption of American policies in line with the erosion of Russia and Europe.

The friendship emerged between the leaders of the United States and North Korea in 2018, leading to three direct meetings between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, strengthened the possibility of ending the North Korean nuclear crisis. However, these meetings did not prevent North Korea from continuing its nuclear and missile programs, and negotiations with the U.S ended without results. Exploiting the ontological security perspective, the purpose of this research is to explore the reasons for the continuation of North Korea's nuclear programs despite those summitry meetings and provision of political and financial incentives to North Korea to end its nuclear and missile activities. The research, utilizing an analytical-explanatory method, tried to explain the failure of nuclear negotiations between North Korea and the United States during Trump's Presidency (2018-2020) from the ontological security approach. The research assumes that the effort to maintain the biographical narrative of the leaders of North Korea based on Juche ideology and the rigid attachment to competitive and hostile routines with the United States explain the continuation of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs and the failure of North Korea-US nuclear negotiations during Trump's Presidency. Any disturbance in this routine would have resulted in a break from the biographical narrative and caused anxiety and uncertainty and as a result ontological insecurity.

The unexpected victory of Trump in November 2016 had a significant impact on the regional and international momentum generated by JCPOA. The JCPOA presented an opportunity for cooperation between Iran and the US-West in the West Asian region, particularly in combating ISIS. However, the US withdrawal from the JCPOA under the Trump administration severely undermined its credibility and reliability. Moreover, this decision resulted in the imposition of severe sanctions on Iran, which found support among some regional countries. Escalating tensions, such as the downing of an American drone by Iranian forces, further heightened the intensity and scope of these conflicts. As the likelihood of Trump's participation in the upcoming US presidential campaign grows and the increasing presence of conservative extremists in the construction of American power, it becomes imperative for Iran to understand his potential strategies. Anticipating and devising a sophisticated response will be crucial. This research explores the foundations and approaches of the American strategy toward Iran during Trump's presidency. It seeks to unveil the strategies chosen by President Trump in dealing with Iran and their implications. Employing a process-tracing approach and relying on analytical descriptions, along with data collected from library sources and the internet, this study sheds light on America's intricate goals and strategies, offering suggestions for effectively engaging with and sustaining them.

This article has resorted to the theory of discourse analysis and used its epistemological foundations and conceptual tools in order to respond to the superiority of Islamism in confronting the discourse of Marxism in the process of the Islamic Revolution of Iran. From this point of view, Islamism is considered as a semantic system that was able to marginalize it by using the fluid concepts and signs of Marxism discourse such as social justice and struggle against imperialism and become the superior and undisputed discourse of the revolution.Although the discourse of Marxism did not succeed in stabilizing its semantic system and was marginalized in the process leading to the Islamic Revolution of Iran; But he was able to introduce concepts and vocabulary into Iran's political literature and discursive space that did not have a place in the Arabs before. Concepts such as fighting against imperialism, fighting against capitalism, supporting the rights of the lower classes, revolutionism, armed struggle, social justice and anti-monarchy were the most important concepts that this discourse inherited and made permanent in the political-social atmosphere of Iran.

While the classical view (in the form of Realism and its branches) considered power limited to objective fields, the emergence of new technologies, including Information and Communication Technology, has enabled both the creation of power through knowledge and the generation of wealth through cyberspace and has opened a new arena for everyone. Today, the importance of cyberspace is so great that it has affected strategic interactions at international system and has transformed the political economy system of the world. Increasing the depth of the role of the cyber agent has made countries face security risks. Therefore, in order to achieve national power, the countries have formulated their macro-policies in the cyber field with a strategic view and are trying to extract benefits of this new field and simultaneously, face its security problems correctly. The main question of the research is, “what kind of policy and structuring will maximize the exploitation of the cyber space”? Research studies show that fully exploiting the potential of cyberspace is a special form of acting that has not been successful in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The theoretical framework of the research is the political economy approach and the research has used the descriptive-analytical method to achieve its goals. Data collection is through library, internet and documentary studies and process analysis will be done theoretically.