GEOPOLITICS QUARTERLY
Year:2007 | Volume:3 | Issue:1|Papers Count:6

Territoriality in the Persian Gulf dates back to 1930's following the Hague Conference on the law of the sea. The government of Iran was the first one to pass a law delimiting its territorial waters and contiguous zones in 1934 Following Truman's proclamation on September 28, 1945, Persian Gulf States began to ratify laws concerning exploration and extraction of oil in their continental shelves. However, due to narrowness and shallowness of the Persian Gulf, the seabed had to be divided among the coastal states according to their geographical specifications. This physical constraint made some countries to be reluctant to fix their maritime boundaries. As a result, presently there are only 12 boundary lines which are legally delimited and agreed upon. The rest are under dispute and have to be resolved before being shown on the map.This article aims to trace the process of Territoriality in the Persian Gulf from 1934 till now (November 2007) and at the same time produce a precise map covering all the legally agreed maritime boundaries in the Persian Gulf, paying special attention to the agreement made between Arab states since 2000. 

Today, it is evident that in order to achieve. development we need proper planning, because development without proper planning would lead to unbalanced development of economic, social and ecological sectors and also exacerbates regional imbalance, ultimately weakening and undermining' national unity. In fact planning is a tool through which all the activists and governments try to manage the process of development in a controlled manner. In the aftermath of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, when the disturbances of the imposed war were overcome, given the necessity to develop the country, the First Five-Year Development Plan was launched in 1989, which was followed by two other five-year development plans. Currently the Fourth Five-Year Development Plan is being implemented. Despite the implementation of three five-year development plans, still we have some unprivileged and undeveloped regions in Iran. Hence the question that arises is whether the pace of development - "measured on the basis of improvement in development level in provinces of Iran in later years of a plan compared to the first years of same plan" - has been positive for all the provinces?The main thrust of the present article is to find an answer to the said question through an analytical descriptive approach. The results of the research show that after the implementation of anyone of the three development plans, the pace of development in all provinces of Iran was not the equal.

Privatization and liberty of economic activities in commercial, investment and overseas transactions along with development of technology are the initial stages prior to globalization. Reviewing the geo-economic changes in the recent century, we can identify technology development in energy, transportation and communication as an important source of development in world economy. In this regard, economic security could be identified as the main objective in the process of globalization. In this paper, after presenting the theoretical and practical aspect of subject, economic security will be demonstrated based on a conceptual model. Then the developed model will be applied to 117 countries using international information of WDI databank from 1980 to 2002. The estimation of economic security criteria is the main result of this paper which could be applied in analyzing both geo-economic changes in world economy and economic security in Iran in comparison to other countries. As conclusion, this paper presents some political recommendations for improvement of economic security criteria in Iran.

The end of Cold War eliminated geo-strategic rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union in many parts of the world, but two countries have continued their rivalry in Central Asia and the Caucasus. The collapse of the Soviet Union brought a power vacuum in Central Asia, and consequently paved the way for other powers to significantly influence regional development. This paper maintains that the emerging development in the region led to the formation of a geopolitical discourse in Central Asia and the Caucasus. This article maintains the emerging discourse is based upon the competition between regional and extra-regional powers to gain geopolitical advantages in forming security structures and dominating energy resources. In this framework, Iran-Russia cooperation aims at reducing foreign powers influence in the region. As conclusion, this paper maintains that Iran-Russia cooperation could be better conceptualized in the framework of a non-zero sum game.

Deterrence is one of the most important issues in international relations and strategic studies. Strategic threats leads states to design power-centric systems especially deterrence. This paper argues how strategic threats, before and after the Islamic Revolution, led Iran to design this system. It maintains that there is variety of complex and dynamic factors that has shaped Iran's foreign policy deterrence model. By analyzing strategic environment and networks, this study intends to provide a critical insight in identifying key problems of Iran's deterrence model. As conclusion, it is important to note that the Islamic Republic of Iran sought to enhance the credibility of its deterrent model by a relative emphasis on strategic network-building.