فصلنامه راهبرد دفاعی
پیاپی 18 (زمستان 1386)

Although threat is the core concept of the most of the security schools, it is not necessarily the same and exactly does not match the correct understanding of this concept. Therefore, measuring threat is a very difficult task to many security analysts, most portion of this difficulty relies in the field of definition an indicators that can make the process of threat a meaningful one.In this paper, the author while raising the main question on description of indicators for threat measurement offers some indicators, which are efficient enough in understanding severity and weight of a threat. Those indicators are as follows: national strength, national interest, and also depth, time, situation, scope, place and power of a nation – state. These indicators are indicating the volume of a threat, which is useful in setting priorities and showing severity of a threat.

Establishing a stable secured community is one of the main concerns for every state, as the security correlation of countries is being strengthened in such an environment. Undoubtedly, knowing the indicators of such a community will have a determinant role in steering of policies.Therefore, this paper attempts to survey indicators of a secured community and in this way, the Deutsch viewpoint on secured communities will be discussed first and then the indicators of a stable secured community and factors threatening it will be addressed. The author finally concludes with the exploration of his findings on indicators of a stable secured community.

Regional power as a concept was paid attention after the demise of bipolar system. In a hierarchical system, regional powers are actors whose place and function is a very important matter. As we are aware, based on the “Vision Document”, the Islamic Republic of Iran should be the main regional power in the 20 years. It is obvious that achieving this aim without setting indicators will be very difficult. Therefore, this paper aims to setting those indicators.In this paper, after illustration of the place of regional powers in international politics, definition of indicators and its functions will be explained too. And finally the paper concludes with raising some variables and their relevant indicators.

National power as a geopolitical concept is an outcome of a country’s capabilities. The weight of a country in hierarchy of global power depends on its geopolitical weight as well as its national strength among other states and it affects its model of diplomatic relations in many aspects. In order to determine the placement of states in global geopolitical system and comparing their power, measuring the national strength has been one of main concerns of geopolitical, political and International Relations scientists. In this way, they have introduced several ways and means including univariable and multi-variable models. However, they could not reflect the national strength totally. This paper, which is a selected part of the author’s Ph. D thesis, attempts to introduce a model which can measure the national strength based on the nine following factors: economy, politics, science, military, social, territory and space. In this way, the score for Iran and its placement at the regional and global power structure is discussed too.

Understanding of security threats, in fact is a subjective process and recognition of threats through their management. Management of understanding of security threats has three phases including recognition, securitization and processing.At the recognition phase, for the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is appropriate to discover and announce existence of a threat. While at the securitization level, an oral position and acceptation of a threat by audience have a key role, at the processing and assessment level, continuous monitoring as well as information supremacy on changing situation of a threat are of essential significance. This paper has focused on management of understanding of security threats with emphasizing on the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In order to play a considerable role in the international system, the European countries attempted to act in the field of defense and military within a unified framework. Therefore, in the aftermath of Balkan crisis, in a France – UK summit in Dec 1998 they emphasized on defense aspect of the EU and in another meeting in 1999 a plan of an independent EU force was discussed and finally in less than 6 moths it was approved in Helsinki meeting. After explanation of defense policy of the above three countries, the author attempts to prove that integration in military and defense policy of these countries is due to their joint needs and interest.