GEOPOLITICS QUARTERLY
Year:2009 | Volume:5 | Issue:1 (14)|Papers Count:8

With regard to various requirements of human society, many factors could cause international conflicts. The strategic value of a region in which a conflict is occurred is deciding factor in the violence of the conflict. Nevertheless, all of the geopolitical regions of the world have been the scene of conflict to some extent. The theorists have propounded several theories about the resolution of these conflicts. In this essay, with a critical and analytical method, the various theories of international conflict resolution are analyzed and this hypothesis is assessed. Because of the specific characteristics of territorial conflicts and inadequacy of the methods of resolving the other kinds of international conflicts in resolving the territorial ones, some particular Models must be developed which are capable of representing their characteristics. This research shows that the resolution of territorial conflicts is regional by nature and needs various political, economical and even military tactics simultaneously.

Political organization system of the country, executed in the form of sub national entities, is considered as one of the most important and essential parts of the official system. This tern means the regionalization of geographical areas, or identification of homogenous natural, social and economical regions and then organizing them in political units to exert the political control. Political- official units therefore, have political functions, in addition to their economical, social and official functions.Political system and its form, official system, geographical space, emotional and political links between human and place, social relations network, together with the population and its geographical distribution influence the process of determining sub national entities. For a long time, the way of taking taxes, defending the boundaries against the possible attacks of foreign powers, ethnical and cultural problems, and martial considerations for further states control over the Khans and provinces have been effective factors on the political configuration of the space. In Fars province, some factors such as the great area, privation of the southern regions, as well as the cultural, religious and ethnical differences, and competitions over the places have also affected the formation of sub national entities. Based on these facts, the present study seeks an answer to the question which factors influence the elevation of levels of the sub national entities. This study employs the analytical - descriptive research method using documentation and literature review.

In every country, the most fundamental differences are inequality in economic opportunities, nature, language, identity and history. Once these spatial differences are profound and the people of the underdeveloped places become aware about these facts as the reasons of their shares in national participation, they create tensions for the government and hence; the feeling of regionalism becomes stronger against nationalism. Recently, borders are the manifestation of the crisis in the issues related to the national security. In case of striking border differences, national security is being threatened intensely. The importance of borders or border regions necessitates security and in order to create border security, the roles of the ethnic groups there become utmost important.From the ethnic point of view, Iran is a diverse country. Here, the features distinguishing nationalities from one another are concentrated on lingual, religious and ethnic aspects. In Iran, nations are scattered as minority groups in the border regions and provinces. Five Iranian nations of the border regions and the adjacent countries with common languages took up these grounds for the emergence of the ethnic crisis at the border points. Indices like having official language, local Radio and Television, request to take part in the power-struggle or participation in the local elections mean that different Iranian nations including Azeri, Kurd, Balooch, Turkmen and Arabs have reached to the maximum self- awareness hence; they demand the central government to lay out proper ethnic policies and strategies. Considering their self-awareness, if the government adopts particular policies and lead them towards national participation, their national identities would be strengthened too.

The streets' names bear combine the political questions of the cities' history and political geography. Any move to change the names of the streets openly leaves a major impact on the revolutionary changes a political regime undergoes, so changing or replacing the streets' previous names reflects the new or current political power structure.The present article displays the process by which the previous names of  streets in Tehran, as the capital city of the Islamic Republic of Iran -instead of the capital city of Iran under Monarchy Dynasty- have changed into new ones after the Islamic Revolution. It also echoes the ramifications of the transformation as the shining example of the Islamic Republic. This paper has attempted to review why and how streets’ naming occurred in Tehran after Islamic revolution. The article has also looked into the role factors such as ideological will, political structure, war, religion, etc can play as controller and director factors in the process of changing the streets' names in Tehran. The present article is kind of applied papers and accomplish through analytical-descriptive method by using library and archive resources. The findings show the names of streets due to war (names of shohada) are the steadier names after revolution whereas the most instable names are disrelation to political ideological of revolution.

Regarding to discourses of Economic Globalization such as economic, foreign trade and investment liberalization, production and monetary transfer; the role of State-Nations and the importance of geographical frontiers are in reducing. So, many countries and regions in the world intend to profit of Global Economy advantages and its opportunities for enhancing their economic power and geo-economic position in the very high competitive economic globalization era. In this article, we study the defiance of the Oil-rich Countries of the Persian Gulf in a positive interaction to economic globalization process. We also study some weakness of these countries in their geo-economic situation despite the very important geo-politic position. In theses countries because of its huge petroleum incomes, State has a crucial and high role in economy and its expenses are rising. Also, a real privatization has not been made and the competitiveness that is a necessary and important substance of the Market Economy is very weak and non-transparent. Some of them have not been so severe in the questions of economic liberalization and tariff reduction. Therefore, they have confronted some important difficulties in foreign investments attraction and some others defiance in interaction to Economic Globalization.In this article: 1) we study some important elements of Economic Globalization; 2) review the political economy of petrol and some features of economic and political structures in the Oil-rich Countries of the Persian Gulf; 3) explain some globalization standards upon the dates in this countries for studying their geo-economic situation in interaction to Economic Globalization.

Although scientific study of the influence of the geography on the policy is not that much old, exploitation of natural phenomenon for political aims is as old as humans' social life. By formation of social units called country in the world and the threat of this part for these units, politicians were forced to join their frontiers-which were meaningless without that country–to the natural phenomenon which had a suitable preventing role to protect their national security, with less expenses, as much as possible, therefore, one of the chains of the connection between geography and politics was found for the politicians. By formation of the big government in Iran from Mad era thereafter, and with the advantage of Iran being situated in the land (dryness) of the great Caucasian Mountains of about 1200 kilometers length in the northwest, it was an appropriate option for the Iranian governments to choose the natural frontier. This study aims to answer these questions: 1. What political situation do Caucasian Mountains have during history? 2. What is the portion of the limitation of the frontiers of Iran to Caucasian Mountains during a long time and formation of its historical identity in the south?  In the present study, it was tried to utilize a historical method to answer the proposed questions. According to the obtained results, it was clear that the presence of Iran frontiers during a long time in Caucasian Mountains caused Iranian identity to be formed in southern areas.

In the years after 1990, constructivism approach has been used toward explaining the regional conflicts, and it can be determined that such a subject can derived from cultural and structural components within the interpretation of regional developments. Regional conflicts in a bipolar system have always been affected by Structure of the international system and playing the international role by United State & Soviet Union and Occupying the Afghanistan by USSR is a good proof for that.Afghanistan has much ethnic and cultural diversity, and mainly locked in an instable and insecure room. This indicate that Geopolitics scheme after the cold war has been influenced by ethnic, racial, religious and cultural issues in such countries  and this issue has created some contrasts in the different geopolitical areas.