نشریه مطالعات بین المللی
سال دوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 6، پاییز 1384)

Good governance is the acceleration of reform in the Middle East and the Arab world. In this paper, the author systematically surveys the pace of this change with specific proposals for new institutions. He believes that total respect for freedom and justice are the immediate needs of good governance in Arab world. He demonstrates that Arab governments must move much more quickly towards addressing justice and freedom together. The matters covered by the author are those of democracy, government, elections, and good governance. He points to many restrictions on this process, like eastern dictatorship, democracy and religion, democracy and Islam, democracy and Arab countries. This survey notes the English, native and Arabic sources.

During, and leading up to 2004, the two major issues preoccupying both the Palestinians and the Israelis were the separation barrier instigated by Israeli, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank. According to an examination of the events that followed the plan to build a separation barrier and the disengagement plan from Gaza and parts of the northern West Bank, it would appear that the Palestinians and Israel’s Arab neighbors felt that these two projects were directed against them. As things stand, the barrier is being built and the Palestinians are unable to stop it. The situation is different with regard to the Disengagement Plan. At this time, the Americans are attempting to entrench their exclusive influence in the Middle East, if necessary by force. However, past and recent history show that if the U. S. and Europe do not enforce their own solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, there will be no real change in the current political status-quo, and the Palestinians’ situation will continue to deteriorate. This leads to the conclusion that the chances of an agreement being reached between Israel and the Palestinians are not clear.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was established more than a decade ago. Its parent body, the UN Security Council, is currently urging the ICTR to come to a close. At this juncture, it is therefore appropriate to provide an assessment of the ICTR’s functioning. Most scholarly articles so far have focused on the legal output of the ICTR. However, the current assessment is made from a different perspective. It focuses on one specific organ of the ICTR, namely the Prosecution. After a brief outline of the role and tasks of the Prosecution, this article evaluates the prosecutorial strategy and gives an overview of the obstacles that the Prosecution faces in executing its strategy. In this article it is demonstrated that the ICTR Prosecution developed a prosecutorial strategy that is based on three models. Although the Security Council emphasised the importance of prosecuting the most senior leaders that bear most responsibility, the ICTR Prosecution maintained that also other criteria remained relevant for its prosecutorial strategy. These criteria included the geographical spread, the extent of participation, and prospects for dealing with the suspect or accused through other mechanisms. It remains to be seen though, whether the Prosecution will be courageous enough to initiate prosecutions of the alleged RPF-crimes. The rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front perpetrated in Byumba in 1994.

The subject of this article is “Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Future of the Islamic Republic or Iran’s Role”. In introduction it is referred that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was founded in 1996. Its development thus far is also discussed. Two contemporary great powers, Russia and China, founded SCO to combat terrorism and develop economical relations with Central Asia. At the St.Petersburg declaration, they showed their aspiration for accepting new members. The set-up of SCO is composed of seven bodies, five of which are temporary and two permanent. Regarding the political and economic potential of the Islamic Republic of Iran, this country can join the SCO and make its principles of foreign relation compatible with this organization. Negation of U.S presence, mutual economic benefit, the use of “Liberum Veto” by Russia and China in the Security Council of the U.N., and appeasing Islamic fundamentalism are common interests.The rejection of Iran from accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and lack of a mutual definition of Islamic fundamentalism are obstacles. But this article puts stress on development of relations with regard to these considerations.

Those who know International Law and International Relations approaches are aware that what factors influence structure of international system. Human Rights is an approach that has legal roots and it has affects international relations to large extent. By passing the time, it became clear that human rights is an instrument to gain more power for whom seeking force in the political competitions. For the time being, the process of reforming UN suffers from this disease. Therefore, the main question of this article is that whether proposed reforms by high level panel, Secretary-General and the President of general assembly help universality of human rights. AS it is supposed that power politic is continuing to be the dominant approach in proposal of reformation of UN, the author attempts to testify the argumentation that it is impossible to help universality of human rights without considering cross-cultural of human rights and grasping norms and cultural attitudes of different nations in proposals for reforming structures of UN. To this end, culture relativity, proportionality of human rights and the universality of human rights declaration and proposed reforms of UN are investigated.

Recently, scholars have in many ways responded to concerns raised by the General Assembly to discuss aspects of UN reform. In this paper the author prepares an analysis and recommendation on ways of strengthening and making the capacity of states in authorizing military force more efficient and within the framework and provisions of the charter. The present determination of use of force in the manner foreseen in the charter has opened the way for two kinds of restrictive and broad interpretation. The author has not so far made use of them, so, he has chosen to provide a defaulted approach. He has drawn particular attention to the proposal that ordering the use of force for preemptive purposes must belong to the U.N. In his address he focuses on using preventive force against potential future threats as well as hostile acts. He points to considering the uncertainties and contradictions that are among the consequences of using force.

Decision-making techniques are the techniques that help us make the best decisions possible with the information we have available. With those tools we will be able to map out the likely consequences of decisions and choose the best course of action to take. Decision is working out the importance of individual factors. On one part, foreign policy is a nation’s actions regarding national policy and the economic, social and cultural system in a way that they interact with other countries. Civil society is a collective name for the spheres that separate the population of a nation and its institutions from government and state authorities. As a result of this independence, there would be a modern understanding on human values. Civil society can be organized at the national and global level, following the reason that political culture is double-breasted. In this paper the author argues that the political culture of Iran is being impressed by the institutions of civil society and Shi`ism which are shaped by much of what happens between them as a matter of compatibility, upbraiding and contraction. The process of globalization, however, combines two aspects of work which are essentially paradoxical. He concludes that there has been a dialectical relationship between subjects of civil society and decision making in foreign policy.

Main concern of this contribution is the examination of Iran’s altitude toward the regionalism strategy. We develope our idea from following perspectives: capacity building in different aspects. This in turn is needed to cultural and structural preconditions - Iran’s political management weakness toward regionalism contains three important points: absence of (lack of) awareness about importance of regionalism and its positive results, structural weakness and, absence of positive orientation about regionalism. For explaining these lacks of capacity it has pointed to several examples such as: R & D budget, numbers of researcher to total crowed, amount of it influence in society and numbers of computer and internet users.

The following article discusses Khomeini’s consideration for the existence of any relation between science and religion. The author deals with the importance of this matter and shows how the struggle of media for the alleged separation between the two is so divisive. The author also touches on the questions of the total independence of scientific thought and its clear separation from religion. He carries an interesting piece on Western forms of secularism. In another section, he analyzes Khomeini’s concept that had different interpretations. He argues the obstacles in the way of the growth of science and technology, its methodology and especially its limited perceptive knowledge and notes the contradiction between these. His analysis of the matter makes room to discuss how it can be created in an atmosphere where science and religion have harmony. This observation precisely insists on the Islamic view.