نشریه تحقیقات سیاسی و بین المللی
پیش شماره 3 (پاییز 1388)

Treaty of Maastricht had visualized provision that after attaining a common currency in 1999 the grounds should be prepared for a European constitution. This action plan was to be pursued by European elite who were patronizing European unity. In 2002 Valerie Giscard. D Estaing, the former French president, along with some specialists were assigned the task of compiling the draft of the constitution. But due to certain developments this draft of the constitution was faced with negation. These developments were, the sudden changes in Europe and the ensuing hesitation and reservation among the big and small countries of the European Union, the worries and concerns of some social layers of the European population who were protected by their government subsidy policy. As a result there was a negation of the European constitution. These reactions again raised doubt about the pace of European integration and its limits. This set back in the process of European unity led the Union officials to sign Lisbon Agreement of 2007. Now the question is to what extent can Europe advance in the process of unity? What will be the fate of the efforts to form a European constitution which is an intergovernmental agreement and could never substitute the national constitutions or what will be the future of other similar efforts?

The geo-economic and geopolitical status of Iran in the world and its ideological and geo-cultural position in the Islamic world have given her a significant place regard to world developments and transformations. Iran’s geopolitics is constantly undergoing change because it is located in a political and strategically sensitive area. Iran’s foreign policy which is directed by the twenty years perspectives of development document, aims at achieving development, welfare, raising of people’s standard of life, security, and promotion of the international status of the country. With the above objectives in sight, Iran is facing difficult choices and challenges and has to reassess the geopolitical situation of the regional and extra-regional countries in order to be able to have constructive and effective interaction in her foreign policy. This will provide the proper atmosphere and maximum opportunity and reduce the threats arising from geopolitical changes in surrounding areas and in particular in her western borders. It is necessary for Iran to make use of the opportunities in the geopolitical changes of Iraq for its national interests. The aim of the present article is to examine the necessary elements of constructive interaction in Iran’s foreign policy towards Iraq.

All the actors in international arena want to attain the highest place in world and seek to gain the maximum interest and within this framework they make use of all their means and resources to achieve these goals. For this reason ethical values, be in a divine form or civil shape are being paid attention to. Taking into consideration this reality in international arena, the breach of order is not necessarily faced with punishment, the big powers because of their powers, potentials, and their control over international organizations have more extensive ability to legitimize their ethical values with their material interests. Thus it can be concluded that ethical values depend on power position and ethics in international relations depends on world status. The big powers whenever feel expedient make use of ethical debates such as human rights, equality and negation of aggression and whenever they feel it is contrary to their interests, freely breach them. So it is obvious that ethical values are not an integral part of behavior of international actors but it depends on their status in the world. Countries, therefore, depending on the realities, internal and external situations decide whether to make use of ethical values or not. If they think that ethical values facilitate their aims and objectives they use them but if they think pursuing ethical issues and values increases the cost or make impossible the pursuit of their interests they do not stick to it and they put it aside.

This paper attempts to present a different approach to the study of political concepts by using the paradigmatic undertaking. This effort is undertaken to help avoid the misunderstandings prevailing in the study of political philosophy. The concept of "friendship" is studied here in the framework of paradigms to indicate that once again the notion of friendship is gaining a central significance in contemporary political thought. The paper first elaborates the characteristic of three thought paradigms and then the concept of "friendship" is explained in three paradigms: classical, modern individualist and critical-social paradigm.

Man as a complicated creature always needs deep and wide understanding because under the influence of the surrounding atmosphere and circumstances, he keeps on changing. Difference in human being's mature leads to the formation of different characters and this makes the understanding of man more difficult. Man's knowledge and perfection is increasing day by day and this tendency never stops. Nowadays fundamental change and innovation in societies have dramatically changed everything. New methods of understanding physical systems and new methods of thinking have challenged all assumptions and beliefs of man. Certainly anthropological studies help understanding changes in quality of life, value assessment, growth and development of people's life but since societies are constantly changing, the behavior and beliefs of people vary from each other and as a result the science of anthropology lags behind in understanding these quick changes. There are different approaches that examine anthropology from different perspectives. The present paper aims at studying the above mentioned perspectives taking into consideration constant changes and developments in societies. What will be the prospect of these approaches. The present paper looks into this important question.

Common heritage of mankind is a suitable concept which can substitute the concept of sovereignty. No other concept can match this concept as an alternative to the latter. The present article in the first instance suggests that common heritage of mankind is the product of economic and ecological interdependence. The importance of common heritage of mankind is that it shows the gradual decline of the traditional concept of independent sovereign state. The concept of nation-state is based on the maximum interest for the independent state which is in contradiction with the larger interest of humanity and therefore it is an obstacle on the way of international implementation of the concept of common heritage of mankind. In the second instance the aim of the article is to throw light on different aspects of confrontation between the principle of sovereignty and common heritage of mankind. The argument of this discussion is that successful implementation of common heritage of mankind depends on a redefinition of the concept of absolute and permanent sovereignty over natural resources. In the third instance ideal norms for reform in international system are tentatively and experimentally suggested. In other words this article attempts to find a tentative solution to remove obstacles to the successful implementation of common heritage of mankind and to realize desirable and essential goals.

The present article, tries to examine and identify the elements of inefficiency of the Arab League from a theoretical and structural view point in achieving integration and political unity. In this direction the article first pays attention to integration theories in international relations to have a deep understanding of the integration process in the Arab League and then studies the disintegration factors and inefficiency of this regional organization. What are the important disintegrating factors in the Arab League? The present article believes that internal (structural) elements have been the determining factor for disintegration among member countries. On the basis of this assumption different variables which influence and impede the integration process have been analyzed. The most important factors which can be mentioned are the lack of democratic experience, patrimonial (patriarchal) political system, different perceptions about the concept of nationalism, dependent political regimes, lack of support for most political rulers, the reliance of these rulers on colonial powers, lack of belief in real religious values and other factors. But it should be emphasized that among the above said factors two factors namely lack of democratic experience and patrimonial political system are having the most important impact upon their failure to reach unity and integrity.The factors which were enumerated above are the internal challenges of integration and political unity among the union members. Therefore, paying attention to the process of integration on the basis of commonalities can decrease tension, differences and obstacles on the path of unity in the Arab League. The aim of the present article is pointing out the common grounds for integration and suggesting ways to strengthen their bond of friendship.

Geopolitics is an important branch of political science since it studies the impact of geographical factors on politics. One important geographical factor is the physical factor and in particular the weather. In this paper the wind and surface temperature of the Persian Gulf have been paid attention to. So far many studies have been conducted about the geopolitics of the Persian Gulf from historical, political, strategic, energy and other view points. But the impact of the above said factors on the geopolitics of the Persian Gulf has been seldom studied. Taking into consideration the importance of physical factors, the present article aims to study the impact of physical factors on the geopolitics of the Persian Gulf by a descriptive-analytical method. In addition to the impact of water surface temperature and wind on the geopolitics and culture of the people of the region it also tries to examine the geopolitical factors of the Persian Gulf. The hypothesis of the present article is that the weather temperature of the Persian Gulf (between 22.5c to 31.5c) has provided a suitable atmosphere for commerce and also the presence of extra-regional powers. The article first explains the geopolitical factors then it analyzes the data which have been derived from Lewits, PODAAC, COADS, and NCEP. These data are the velocity of the wind and the surface temperature of the water between the years 1990 and 1999. Software such as MALTAB and DELFI have been used for analysis. The findings of the study show that the specific weather of the Persian Gulf region has affected the culture, customs and tradition of the people. It also has attracted the attention of super powers and the region has turned into an important commercial cente.