نشریه مطالعات سیاسی
پیاپی 16 (تابستان 1391)

The main aim of this article is to investigate the concept and use of soft power by China. Therefore, the main question of this article concerns the means by which China expands its influence and power in Southeast Asia. In an attempt to answer the research question, the hypothesis of the article is that China, by relying on its important sources of power (hard power and soft power), that is, the expansion of economic power (in hard power field), the spread of Chinese culture, public diplomacy and foreign policy (in the realm of soft power), has attempted to compete with regional and trans-regional powers and it has won the regional balance. In this regard, this country is expanding and promoting the Chineseculture through the media and its reliance on economic power. The role of Chinese Active diplomacy and foreign policy is vital in achieving these goals. Over the last two decades, the Chinese diplomacy has been guided by the concept of "peaceful rise" with more emphasis on economy and has focused on soft power indices.

Security is one of the most important concepts of international relations. The different schools of thought in international relations had a different approach to this category. The present study aims at considering the concept of security in studies of thinkers of Constructive School. Since the studies of these groups concerning security is located somewhere between the studies of rationalists and reflectivity, or, to put in another way, between positivists and post-positivists, the constructive view of security is considered as a medium way to the issue of security and its different aspects. In this article, at first, post-theoretical issues of Constructive School including its ontological and epistemological principals are investigated, and then related concepts to the studies of security are examined, and at the end, the view point of this school towards the issue of security is critically investigated.

Iran, due to its higher rate of youth population and its ethnic diversity, particularly in Golestan province, needs a systematic and sociological policymaking and planning as well as the consideration of inevitable influences of educational development on political area. To the extent that the expansion and strengthening of sociability of people and citizens of the society is accomplished, the political system enjoys a higher degree of efficiency, acceptability and legitimacy. In this regards, the purpose of the present study is to examine the condition of educational development and the benefit rate of the Turkmen and the Sistanis in Golestan province during the years of 1997-2005. Therefore, the resultsof this study indicate that policies and operations of the government, to some extent, could decrease the educational differences and the distance in the local areas of settlement of the Sistanis and the Turkmen. However, because of the depth of privation, retardation and underdevelopment of the province, especially in the areas the Sistanis and the Turkmen live, there has been a noticeable gap in attaining the desired equality of all citizens for enjoying the educational facilities and improvement of their condition justly. In tis regards, it is of importance to take more actions based on the citizenship attitude, because it is through the widespread and cross-ethnic improvement that all people in society consider themselves as a member of one body and they would enjoys mutual rights and duties.

After the collapse of Baath regime, geopolitics and the ideational structure governing Iraq have been deconstructed. Therefore, new actors appeared in Iran and Iraq; in this regards, Iraq were divided into blocks, including the Kurds, the Shiites, and the Sunnis, thereby, this structure brought about new challenges in relations. Beside new opportunities, with these changes, new challenges were confronting the government of Islamic Republic of Iran. Therefore, this study, using geographical framework and constructivism approach, and under the title of constructivism geography, aims at explaining the question of the study. The main question raised in this research is how geopolitical constructs lead to the creation of challenges confronting Islamic republic of Iran in Iraq. Concerning the research question, the aim of the present study is to understand how challenges are constituted by geopolitical constructs.

Using the theory of Dynamic Trilateral Interaction in the Foreign Policy, the present research aims at investigating the process of continuity and change in foreign policy in Iran of the time of Khatami and Ahmadinejad presidency. This theory, based on components like international system, domestic situation, and political elites, can explain the factors as well as the range of change and continuity in foreign policy of Iran from the speech of confidence at the time of Khatami to the speech of resistance and Islamic Radicalism at the time of Ahmadinejad.

Using descriptive-analytic approach, the present research aims at identifying and explaining the influences of Islamic Republic of Iran on the expansion of Shia Political Feghe. The findings of the study show that Islamic revolution, based on its religious identity on the one hand and the role and position of its Shia jurists in its emergence, on the other hand, has connected the political Feghhe to Iranian`s political life in a concrete way. In this regards, Imam Khomeini's juridical and political efforts before and after the revolution could promote the position of politics based on religion in the world and could increase the value of governments based on religion, particularly Islamic and Shia government. In fact, the victory of Islamic revolution and the establishment of Islamic Republic of Iran based on Shia political Feghhe instructions, and especially the theory of the supreme spiritual leader, and further the emphasis on the importance of political Feghhe in Iranian canon of political knowledge, have paved the way for promotion of its epistemological position from "the knowledge of religious commands supervising political life" to "political Islamic knowledge balancing political life" and has also helped provide the rank of "regime making".

The aim of this study is to investigate and explain political satisfaction of students of political sciences in Islamic Azad University of region 3 from the functions of ninth and tenth governments in foreign policy. This research is survey and its tool for gathering data is a questionnaire developed by the researcher of the present study and it has an acceptable validity and reliability. The population of the present study is 322 male and female students of Islamic Azad University in the academic year of 2010-2011. The gathered data are analyzed by correlation, independent-samples T test and ANOVA test. Findings of the study indicate that the rate of political satisfaction of university students is lower than the average limit and rate of political satisfaction of female students (P-value=0/000) and married students (P-value=0/005) is significantly higher. The results show that the rate of political satisfaction of students who made use of satellite and internet as the sources of attaining political data is significantly lower.

The aim of this paper is to detect and evaluate factors that formed the foundation of Middle Eastern foreign policy of the Russia under Putin’s presidential term. During Putin presidency, Russia has changed its role from being merely the observer of changes in Middle East to being an influential factor. Based on evolutionism theory, Russia`s foreign policy has been created by two original factors of “definition of national and international identity” and “external pressures”. In this regards, Putin attempted to define a type of national identity which was fundamentally based on Specialism as a selected nation between East and West and with emphasis on the role of Russia as a great power in international system. Moreover, external pressures which were mostly resulted from American actions for encirclement and isolation of Russia in Near Abroad, Middle East and international system as well as intimidations resulting from Islamic fundamentalism throughout Near Abroad and Russia with focus on Chechen, all these factors and pressures provoked Russia to chose a more active foreign policy toward the Middle East and to initiate attempts in order to increase its role in Middle east events.