نشریه تحقیقات سیاسی و بین المللی
پیاپی 4 (پاییز 1389)

Terrorist events of 11 September 2001 opened a new chapter in domestic and foreign policies of Bush (junior) administration. After the end of the cold war the United States suffered a vacuum for its security strategy. During the cold war era, the United States chose the deterrence strategy. The end of the cold war meant the end of that strategy. As a result during 1991-2000 years there was a security vacuum for the United States. But the September 11 terrorist attacks created an opportunity for the protagonists of that country to adopt a new strategy in foreign policy and international affairs. The Neo-conservatives after September 11 made use of this opportunity to aggrandizement the danger of terrorism at home for gaining popular support and in international arena they could consolidate their hegemony and the leadership of the world. The United States after these incidents took up new policies and objectives. Besides that the United States pursued a new concept in security in foreign policy and in this direction the strategy of pre-emptive attack was adopted. In other words the strategy of “deterrence” gave its place to “increasing intervention”. Hence one notices that the realist approach has been strengthened by American statesmen and decision-makers and they have turned towards security policies and unilateralism in international relations. One of the new approaches which is being stressed today in analysis of international relations and the United States foreign policy is aggressive realism. In aggressive realism the emphasis is placed on the increasing of power as an aim for achieving hegemonic status in international system (as the principal behavior of big powers). The present article by making use of this theoretical framework tries to explain the United States foreign policy in the Middle East after the year 2001.

The idea of legalism is one of the important grounds of modernization in Qajar era and in this movement the role of intellectuals of this period is very important. These intellectuals by preaching the idea of legalism prepared the ground for socio-political development. Among these intellectuals Mirza Yousef Khan have had a special position. He took great step by writing a booklet named "One Word" which contributed to the principle of "rule of law" in Iran at that time. In the present article the bases of Mirza Yousef Khan's thinking which has been expressed in the introduction of his booklet is discussed. Mirza Yousef Khan by emphasizing the importance of rule of law believes that the progress of the society depends upon the expansion of this concept. While he pays attention to the new Western law and codes and bases his thinking of legalism on those criteria he also attaches enough importance to domestic bases i.e. the Sharia book and lays the foundation of his legal thinking on this ground also. Mirza Yousef Khan's idea of legalism is of great importance since it does not merely follows Western law and he tried to find a suitable foundation for establishing rule of law during Qajar period and in this regard he differs from other thinkers who merely followed Western law. Mirza Yousef Khan tried to create the concept of law by making use of Western law and Sharia law. Thus if one want to understand the concept of legalism during Qajar period one must acquaint oneself with Mirza Yousef Khan's thinking and the bases of his legalism.

In spite of the numerous progresses which have taken place so far in supplying the needs of man the issue of supplying energy is having the highest priority for the countries of the world. For the big powers with world status like the United States which after the disintegration of the Soviet Union is making tremendous effort to organize a hegemonic order, the security of energy supply is occupying a more important place. The emergence of economic powers that are growing and flourishing stresses the need for strategic view point about the areas where energy resources are located in the world. In these situations the Russian Federation which has succeeded the former Soviet Union with its large oil and gas resources has tried to have an active role in regional and world competitions. Presently Iran's oil and gas resources like previous decades have played as an important factor in security of energy supply. An effective presence of the United States in the Persian Gulf particularly in Iraq and also Afghanistan has added to the importance of Iran in providing the security of the energy supply in strategically important place of the world. In the present article the author examines the impact of political and security change after the end of bipolar system on the role and impact of Iran in providing security of the energy supply.

By ethnic problem one means a situation where all the ethnic groups or sections of country’s ethnic group in their tendency towards nation-state and their feeling about belonging to that state have become different or against it, instead they emphasize on their own peculiarity and wish certain degree of disintegration. In many occasions the national nationalism and ethnical nationalism conflict with each other. The present article wants to study the impact of ethnic inequalities on national security. Two province of Isfahan and Kurdistan have been selected as the representatives of different ethnic groups. For collection of data library materials (documentary) and secondary analysis have been used. For comparison of the inequality between the two provinces economic and social indexes have been used. Also for examining the variable of national security and its condition in these two understudy provinces, data have been taken from a study which was conducted in Summer 1381/2002 by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance under the name of “value and attitudes of Iranians”. Eventually the following findings have been concluded.From the view point economic and social indexes Kurdistan is placing at a lower level than Isfahan Province. As regards to the variable for evaluating national security, the distinction and differences between the views and opinion of citizens of Isfahan Province and citizens of Kurdistan Province are quite tangible. This large difference on variable of national security between the two (which represent two ethnic groups) can lead to problems for national unity and lowering the national security index.

The application of the concept of common heritage of mankind within the corpus of environment international law shows that there are considerable problems regarding the conceptual meaning and its application. These problems arise from the meaning of the concept of common heritage of mankind in regard to the exploitation of resources which are beyond national jurisdiction and its application within the framework of protection of the global environment. These differences in conceptual meaning and lack of proper explanation regarding the essential element of common heritage of mankind particularly in regard to international law of the environment has caused ambiguity, vagueness, and confusion.The question which is raised by present article is that how the concept of common heritage of mankind can be implemented in regard to environment? The present article by a future oriented viewpoint and by a descriptive analytical method examines the application of the concept of common heritage of mankind and the new concept of “common concern” which is used for preservation of the environment. This common concern is about the international environment particularly about the natural heritage of the world, atmosphere, living resources, and diversity of the living species. The paper also discusses the ways to strengthen the legal status of this concept in subject of environment and is of the view that five principles of common heritage of man should exist in it.

Criticism and assessment of thought streams of contemporary Iran is affected by how they face with the problem of modernity and tradition. In the confluence of Iranians and modern world, intellectual elites through making a judgment about these two options, at the same time, determined the direction of their theoretical path. In the present article, with referring to the intellectual needs in understanding the three approaches: modern-oriented, domestic (or native)-oriented and selective (or eclectic!!)-oriented, the focus will be on the thought of Jalal Ale Ahmad. Ale Ahmad according to his literary, political and intellectual works is a domestic-oriented thinker. This writing intends to discuss this hypothesis that for what reasons the domestic-oriented outlook contains paradoxical and poor ideas. It will be argued that Ale Ahmad both in proposing the meanings of the "West" and "Modernity", and more important, the "Eastern" or "Domestic", represents paradoxes and contradictions. In order to confirm the hypothesis in this text, descriptive-analytical method with reference to this author's works will be utilized.

In the present article after examining the supra theoretical foundations, the view point of constructivism on international relations, foreign policy and culture are evaluated. It seems that a new constructivist epistemology and ontological debate is coming up in international relations. The present article discusses the consequences of this debate for international order, international institutions, world culture and identities. The article raises the question that on what bases the constructive methodology operates? The underlying hypothesis is that in constructivism the reality is derived from subjective social foundation and it is the product of the interaction of the structure-agent and then the consequences of this interpretation of the analysis of international relations and the performance of the governments in international politics are examined and finally the function of culture in the constructivist formation of international system is studied.

The aim of the present article is to identify the grand trend of the international system in beginning of the new millennium. The question which is raised is what grand processes the international system after the collapse of the Soviet Union is having which limits the decision makers in formulating their foreign policy? The finding of the study shows the instances like the increasing role of national and international public opinion, the rise in the importance and place of terrorist organizations in creating world insecurity, the expansion of the wave of demand for democracy and the emergence of more democratic governments in the world, the multi aspect process of globalization, the change of the traditional concept of security to a complicated and multi faceted concept, economic and security regionalism and finally the United States unilateralism and its disregard for international norms are among the important trends which have affected the international system. Therefore, the governments notwithstanding the structural limitations are facing procedural limitations and have to formulate and implement their foreign policies within these constraints.