GEOPOLITICS QUARTERLY
Year:2012 | Volume:7 | Issue:4 (24)|Papers Count:9

The politics of the Middle East region in particular and the Muslim world in general have been characterized by the Islamic movement in the aftermath of the lslaj. uic revolution in hank. Alongside with nationalism, socialism and their variations, political Islam has been put forth as a construct and a prescript Hon for state crate the mainly. enhance of political sovereignty as well as a social model for Muslim countries by the Islamists. Though in most countries political Islam is a movement or is organized around a political party, and some states like Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan have labeled themselves as "Islamic Republic", it is only in the case of Iran that Islam is modeled as a system of governance. During the same period that political Islam has stood both as a movement as well as a model of rule, the global system beginning in the early l8Os, has seen unprecedented levels of change. Significant among them are: the downfall of the USSR and the attenuation of the socialist model thereafter. Intensification of the global economic, technological and financial interdependence, intensive privatization of economic activity and the universalization of liberal democracy with its numerous variations as the model of governance.This article intends to relate these two developments. A number of salient questions stand Out as the two significant developments are correlated: I) To what degree the Islamic movement since its introduction in Egypt in the I 930s and later on in many of its actual examples has produced a model? Second, to what degree has the Islamic movement been a political reaction to Western colonialism? And third, to what degree the globalization processes and the principles of the Islamic movement complement one another? In light of the aforementioned conceptual formulation, the major assumption is ibis article maintains that the economic and political dynamics of the current globalization processes led by the Western world are not only intensifying in the coming decade but are proving its.

The clarification of the present situation in the relations of large powers including the United States, Russian Federation, China, European Union, and India is implying a new cold war in geopolitical, political, economic and military aspects which the member countries of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), led by USA, have against the member countries of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), led by China and Russia. The new cold war includes all aspects of the relationships of Eastern Powers with Western countries and In the first place the political relations between Russia and US worsen up. To find the emerging signs of the new cold war in the beginning of the third AD Millennium, the main part of the focus is on geopolitical areas of central Eurasia, Eastern Europe and Middle East. Among these signs the following could be mentioned, Moscow Vs. Washington arms race as the US missile defense shield in the former Soviet Union satellites and the exit of Russia from the conventional forces in Europe, the development of NATO to the east and middle east districts, the Russian-American confrontation over Balkan and the independency of Kosovo, Russian aggression to Georgia and the NATO’s reaction, concerns of the west due to the Russian dominance on the energy sources and Moscow’s endeavor to employ this as a political tool, and also the disagreement between the White House, European capitals and Peking and Moscow over Iran’s nuclear power profile.

This study attempts to answer question addressing significance of regionistic view and foundation as well as background of the development trend of regional cooperation all over the world. Impacts of various markets-based cooperation scenarios or those of state-run on this model along with exploring the features of the most appropriate common model for regional cooperation which has brought about the introduction of the leading common stream of regional development model constitute another part of the study. The study was conducted on the basis of meta-analysis research method through which achievement of the objectives identified for the Iranian 20 year Prospective Development were also investigated. The study first deals with the significance of globalization and regionalization followed by investigation of the aspects of old and new regionalization approaches. Moreover, regional development models are briefly investigated from two perspectives: "Economic Models for Regional Development" and "Scenarios for Regional Development and Cooperation". At the conclusion, the study offers proposed models and approaches for development of South-West Asia.

The Occupied Palestinian Territories have been a source of conflict for much of the twentieth century. The Palestinian Issue for the UN and especially for the Security Council (SC) is a main challenge which menaces continuously the international peace and security in the World. As our major question, we desire to elaborate the role and the policies of the SC concerning the Palestinian Issue. Through this paper, we seek firstly to explain the issue and then to evaluate the Security Council’s activities. We try to observe if the SC has been accomplished, based on the Charter of UN, its main duty, i.e. the peace keeping?We have chosen the Critical Theory of International Relations as our theoretical framework. As our conclusion, we try to prove that the SC has failed to accomplish its main duty. The right of Veto and the US pressure are considered as the major factors which prevent the SC to play its expected role. The Palestinian Issue demonstrates more and more the fact of need for the essential reforms in UN structure, especially in the Security Council.

Nowadays, democracy has become one of the concerns of different governments and people in the world. In this case, some countries have managed to provide this kind of government in its best form for the people residing within their border. Such countries have also managed to provide high levels of security in social, political and economic arenas for their people by securing speech and press freedom and also other rights expected by democracy.Moving toward democracy was followed more strongly by coup d’etat in 1970s in a way that waves of democratization permeated most parts of the world and also today, governments have done their best to reach this lofty cause by establishing institutions.The writers of this article intend to specify the formation of this phenomenon in the world and familiarize the readers with the kinds and forms of ruling political systems in different regions by looking in to data of the Economist’s index rating the (world) countries regarding democracy in 2008.

Territory is one of the essential pillars of political geography. But, there are a lot of discussion about dissubjectivity and unimportance of territory at the age of globalization. The discourses about deterritorialization have attracted the academic and scientific groups so much that some believe that Globalization equals deterritorialization.This article with a neo-realism approach has tried to analyze the process of Globalization having territorial vision. In other words, while it does not deny exterritorial and transnational processes but it put emphasis on reterritorialization of various phenomenon and processes at the age of globalization. The assumption is that territory and boundary can not be obliterated but their function have changed. Likewise, it is believed in this paper that for the needs of human to different and geography, the role of territory will remain for future and globalization and transnationalization do not diminish its role and situation in the communal human life.

A state is said to be politically viable only when its territory and humanity are organized together, as a single unit in terms of a particular, distinctive idea, i.e. the "state-idea" which justifies the existence of the particular state incorporating the diverse regions into it, the state must have a raison d’etre-reason for existence. Viability is a measure of the effectiveness with which a state can be administered to fulfill the purposes to which the state was created. Each state, on being created, is required to formulate a set of purposes to which its citizenry must adhere, or can subscribe, which commands widespread support in the state, and is different from the purposes formulated by other states. Such a statement of purposes, with which the citizenry of the state can identify itself, constitutes the "state-idea". It is the "state-idea" that keep the state geopolitically organized, and resists the centrifugal forces, or the forces of disintegration to become active to cause geopolitically disintegration of the state.The present paper aims to study the level of political viability of the South Asian States, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Sri-Lanka, in terms of the fulfillment of the purposes, for which they were created. It, also, studies their raison d’etre. The paper examines this aspect of the viability, in politico-geographical context, and framework.