نشریه تحقیقات سیاسی و بین المللی
پیاپی 20 (پاییز 1393)

The decentralized and distributed political structure of the United States has led to a situation that many groups and organizations have been able to affect the complicated process of decision making. Although the Jews comprise only three percent of the United States population yet they have been able to become the most influential ethnic minority in the power structure of the country. The American Jews have created prominent set of different organizations for influencing the United States foreign policy. In this regard the role of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as the most powerful and known American Jewish organization is quite conspicuous. The present article wants to know what role AIPAC plays in elections of the members of American Congress and President. The underlying hypothesis is that the majority of congressional and presidential candidates try to attract a positive view of this organization and benefit from its extensive financial support and propaganda. In exchange AIPAC by offering these facilities to candidates wants to shape public opinion and influence foreign policy making institutions to achieve its goals which are mobilizing support for Israel.

After the victory of the Islamic revolution fundamental changes took place in foreign policy of Iran. Pursuing nuclear program was one of the sign of these developments، which created a concern in European Union and as a result led to a security challenge for Iran. The fear from Iran who possesses nuclear technology drove the green continent towards a coalition with the United States and some of Iran''s neighbor particularly the conservative Arab governments. With the turn in European Union foreign policy towards Iran، Iran also revised its policies towards her friends and the possible foes. On this basis the present article wants to examine the opportunities and limitations of relations of Iran with the European Union under the impact of nuclear program. The basic strategy of the European Union in regard to nuclear program is preventing Iran acquiring the potential to produce nuclear arms. With this objective in view the European Union makes use of different tools like sanctions، negotiations and supporting Iran''s rival. Part of this policy making of the European Union has undergone changes under the impact of Iran''s relations with China، Russia and also confrontation or interaction with the United States in medium term.

Pakistan as an important country is the Islamic world، after independence has always faced internal، political، economic and social instability. One of the factors that accelerate the instability is ethnic conflict. In this regard Karachi as an important industrial and economic center of Pakistan faces the worst ethnic conflict and separatist demands. What is the root cause and nature of these ethnic conflicts? The present article tries to analyze the factors that destabilize Pakistan with emphasis on multi aspect nature of ethnic conflict. It also highlights the cause and grounds of ethnic conflict in both domestic as well as external dimensions.

The United States as a regional hegemon does not want the formation of rival hegemon for herself in other parts of the world. Therefore، after establishing her regional hegemony in Western Hemisphere tried to prevent rival great powers to gain control of Asia and Europe. Some of the great powers like Japan and Germany before 1945 and later the Soviet Union had the potential to become regional hegemony. Presently China after four decades of modernization of the country''s vital elements of power is in a position to become a regional hegemon in Asia Pacific in a way that the United States has to reconsider its calculations about China. The present article wants to answer this question why the United States wants to be present in different regions of the world and what factors has affected the United States strategy in Asia Pacific? The underlying hypothesis is that the United States nation security is affected by balance of power in other regions and the presence of the United States in several regions of the world is a response to rise of regional hegemons and the new strategy of the United States in Asia Pacific is a response to rise of China''s power. The above hypothesis has been explained with an explanative method.

The correlation between global governance and global organizations with soft power is the subject of present article. Globalization and global governance have added to the importance of IGOs in political, cultural and economic fields. On the other hand, one of the most important aspect of each country’s power, which on the contrary of its existence, has been neglected and not been paid attention to, is the issue of its soft power. In this article the writers have tried to use library as well as Internet sources on the issue of inter-governmental organizations specially UNESCO while keeping in mind Nye’s theory of soft power and have applied the theory to the activities of IGOs. The primary sources are those documents and speeches which have been published by UNESCO on their activities. It seems that soft power among some of the international organizations such as UNESCO is more important than the others because UNESCO is having long standing in cultural practices around the world. Finally the Palestinian joining to UNESCO has been regarded as an important example of its soft power.

The coming into power of development oriented politicians in Turkey led to change in economic and political development indexes in the last ten year. An examination of the process of development of Turkey shows the Islamist government under the leadership of Justice and Development Party has been able to remove the obstacles on the way of economic growth and development and lead the country towards economic and political development. The important factor in this regard is sound planning for domestic production with export orientation. In this context the government has acted like a marketing agent for manufacturing industries. With this objective in view the government has pursued an active economic diplomacy in the region as well as world. The dimension of this economic diplomacy consist of solving problems with neighbors، making use of economic experts، guiding private sector companies and active and effective presence in international economic organizations. The finding of the study shows that economic diplomacy had improved the micro and macro-economic development indexes and today Turkey stands as the 16th economic power in the world.

In the past thirteen years the question of nuclear issue of Iran has become one of the important issues in the Middle East. Iran، the United States and the littoral states of the Persian Gulf are the actors who are concerned with security repercussions of the nuclear issue. The position of the United States and the Arab countries of the south of the Persian Gulf is opposition to peaceful Iranian nuclear program. The question raised by the present article is why the United States tried to emphasize that the nuclear program of Iran is a threat to the countries of the region and there existed security problem? The underlying hypothesis is that the securitization of the nuclear issue of Iran along with Iran phobia project can ensure the United States strategic interests in the Middle East particularly the Persian Gulf region. The impression of the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region has also shaped on the basis of these propagandas. The present article examines the above issue within the framework of aggressive realism.

Egypt is one of the important and influential countries among the Arab and Middle East countries which has witnessed an extensive and popular revolution between 25th January till 11 February 2011. This revolution forced Hosni Mubarak، a president who ruled for thirty years to resign from power. The aim of the present article is analyzing the internal grounds of Egyptian revolution in 2011. The main question of the present article is to find out the reasons and motivations of the people''s extensive participation and revolt against Hosni Mubarak government. The article by a descriptive-analytical method comes to a conclusion that economic، political and social deprivation as compared to other factors can explain the causes and motivation of revolutionary forces in 25th January 2011 revolution. On this basis variables like economic deprivation among the lower classes، political deprivation among the middle classes، political elite، parties and opposition groups and social deprivation among other layers of the society led to public discontentment and later revolution against political structure of Egypt.