GEOPOLITICS QUARTERLY
Year:2010 | Volume:6 | Issue:1 (17)|Papers Count:9

Scale is one of the basic concepts of political geography whose main ideas emerged in 1990s to challenge the dominant ideas in the political and social processes. The said concept implies three different meanings, that is, cartographical, methodological and geographical. The latter has wider application and is more important in critical geopolitics. Geographical sales are simultaneously "relations", "metaphor", "representative layers", and a "heterogeneous hierarchy of labyrinthine spaces". All the local, regional, national, global…geographical scales are the focus of attention of the political geographers in the postmodern political geography and critical geopolitics. In order to have a better understanding of spatial politics, while taking into account the spatial scales in their analysis, the political geographers focus on the interrelationship and interdependence of the scales.

The major thrust of the present paper is to study the role of religion in the expansion of sphere influence of a country. What is meant by religion is an spectrum of beliefs, interests, inclinations, and ideals of the people and officials of a country as well as the activities and functions that are religious or are formed with the support of religious beliefs. What is meant by sphere of influence is the spaces that are created for the visible and invisible presence of country enabling it to promote its values. The present paper is an attempt to study the role of Shiism for Iran's role in international arena after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

The profound changes in the political geography of South Caucasus following the collapse of the Soviet Union led to serious transformations in the contour of regional and international politics. In the light of its historical ties with the peoples of this region and relying on its neighborhood with the countries, the Islamic Republic of Iran expanded its political-economic ties with South Caucasian states. With the independence of these countries, the Caucasian region was exposed to confrontation of regional and global powers. The main thrust of the present paper is to provide answer to the following question: How has the Islamic Republic of Iran utilized the geopolitical opportunities created after the independence of these countries? Attempts have been made to discuss the changes in the relations of Iran with the South Caucasian countries in the light of the geopolitical factors affecting these relations.

With the establishment of safe zone in April 1991 the sovereignty of the Ba'th Party over the 36th parallel north was eliminated and an autonomous government was established in the said region. The formation of an autonomous government in the region and its establishment in the Iraqi Constitution along with the recognition of this government within the framework of federalism, legal recognition of the Kurdish military forces and Kurdish language, and the participation of the Kurds in the hierarchy of central government turned KRG into an affective element in the whole Iraqi political system. The present paper will study the impact of this government on the ethnocentric movements in the neighboring areas.

The calculation of national power and presentation of a formula to compare the national power of different countries at a given time or the national power of one country in two different periods has always been a major concern of researchers of political geography, geopolitics and political science. Various attempts have been made to calculate or measure the power of the countries in the postwar period, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. These attempts may be classified into three categories: Some scholars concentrated on the introduction of effective elements of national power, introducing some variables as the most important factors affecting national power of the countries. The second group, while introducing a conceptual framework, have tried to measure national power on the basis of their own proposed variables. The third group, while selecting factors and variables, have offered a mathematical model to determine the nature of relations and combination of the proposed variables in order to measure the national power. The main focus of the present paper is to identify the main elements of national power in the viewpoint of experts. Also the conceptual and mathematical models of measurement of national power have been critically studied and some solutions offered for their improvement.

The determination of the level of development in different regions is necessary for having an effective framework for the balance distribution of population, activities, functions and planning. The present article is an attempt to study – through factor analysis - the level of rural and urban development of Iranian provinces between 1996 and 2006. With the removal of colinearity between the factors, the primary indicators will be limited to certain number of factors. The sum total of the factor scores can be representative of level of development of the provinces. The findings of the present research indicate that the indexes of development have increased in most of the rural and urban areas, while inequality between the more developed and lesser developed provinces have increased too. The development gap between Tehran Province (the most developed) and Sistan and Baluchestan Province (the least developed) in rural areas is 157.37 percent and in the rural areas 100.88 percent. This underlines the necessity of revision of national planning which requires more attention to the regional planning.

As a strategic neighboring region, South Caucasus enjoy a high priority in Iran's security policy. As an influential regional power, Iran follows certain objectives, policies and interests in this region. The present article is an attempt to study the security policy of Iran in the said region. It is argued that contrary to the dominant approach in the West, Iran's security policy is based on economic and security interests stemming from the geopolitical imperatives rather than ideological ideals and values. The most important interest and security objective of Iran is protection of its sovereignty and national unity as well as secure energy and sustainable development.