POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE
Year:2010 | Volume:5 | Issue:2 (10)|Papers Count:8

Benefiting from economic potentials as well as national energy and in the framework of energy diplomacy, different states have proceeded a new strategy of economic growth and development and provision of their national interests and security in their own foreign policy. However, the inefficiency and incapability in the economic trends of the foreign policy of I.R.I have given rise to the fact that the academic and university literature of Iran don’t pay much attention to the relation of energy sector and foreign policy. Explaining the pathology of the relation of the two fields of foreign policy and energy, the present article seeks to reveal the significance of these two sectors and that of creating functions used to keep individual natures up to now. Thus for Iran as a country possessing huge oil and gas resources within and beyond its national borders, energy diplomacy is considered as a means towards maximizing achievements in the world politico economic system. However, economic attitude has often been of less significance comparing to political considerations in the foreign policy of Iran. Thus the predominance of commercial approach in the field of energy is the result of failure to have a long - run and strategic look to the issues of energy sector in the foreign approach of energy diplomacy. This fact explains that creation of development in the general conditions of regional as well as international actors necessitates long – run strategies in different sectors including foreign policy. Offering a definition for energy diplomacy and explaining its domain, the present article deals with the relation of energy diplomacy with national interests and goals of I.R.I, and the obstacles of I.R.I toward achieving the new pattern.

Considering the importance of government in the management of human societies, particularly from the point of view of Islam, and the big role the holy prophet - as the supreme role model according to the Quran - gave to government, learning his thoughts in this respect can be effective and determining in the destiny of our present day society. Emphasizing divine revelation and the basic principle of human nature, the holy prophet of Islam raised the issue of government as a vital necessity towards guaranteeing the rights and interests of human beings and explained it with special focus on the concept of respect. The present article deals briefly with the nature of government considering the concept of respect from the perspective of the holy prophet. Thus the main question is what interpretation has the holy prophet given of government, and what is the nature of government?In view of this question, the main hypothesis is that considering the establishment of political society and that of government by holy prophet in Madina and considering his emphasis on divine revelation and his knowledge of human being, he has regarded government as respect and observance in sense of guarding and protection. This interpretation represents the prudent direction and action towards public good and happiness and satisfying the rights and interests of community. Accordingly, he counts respect as a human policy and relation indicating the equal rights of individuals in the society. In other words, according to him, all people – besides being subjects or citizens – are protectors of each other. Thus government is just a trust and a vital responsibility towards administration of public affairs of people.

Emergence of theoretical studies concerning national security has given rise to the possibility of raising the issue of security in the frameworks of political thought. One of the focal points in the political thought of Imam Khomeini is the position and significance of the political system briefly termed as the position of political system. The present article terms the same issue as political security. The main question of the present article is: What is the meaning and referent of political security according to Imam Khomeini? The hypothesis says: Imam Khomeini has given the highest significance to the principle and position of the political system based on two postulates: a) Government is the only guarantee for implementation of Islamic regulations b) Establishment of Islamic government is an obligation. Testing the hypothesis occurs through a theoretical framework being a modified and supplemented form of the theory of political security of Buzan.The three elements of this theory are elaborated and used as the indices of political security in analyzing the political thought of Imam Khomeini. This fact is explained by mentioning various evidence from Imam Khomeini political thought. The second part of the article focuses on the threats of political security. The outcomes of the article show that the threats of coherency and security of political system are directed respectively to the idea of state, the political institutions, and finally the material stance of government.

Undoubtedly, the Iranian revolution is at the close of its transition period from earlier universal experiences starting its new experiences in political and cultural occasions. The most outstanding feature of this new experience is return to religious belief, emphasis on spirituality, and giving significance to human relations regardless of the usual procedure of the world. This is the very thought foundation of the Iranian revolution capable of teaching a new life style, interpretation of the world, and a different understanding of the current world conventions to the modern man. The proper understanding of this aspect of the Iranian revolution involves understanding the process of reconstruction and equipment of intrareligious concepts existing prior to the revolution towards religious revivalism. In this process, a few decades before the Islamic Revolution, a new approach in the Shiite intellectual literature arose concerning concepts such as the relation of religion and politics, expectation of deliverance, dissimulation, holy war (Jihad), and martyrdom. All this played a big role in the intellectual training of people and adopting a new attitude towards a fundamental change based on religion. Shiite scholars of this period came to the conclusion that the contents of Shiite thought are capable of presenting a desirable socio-political pattern in the modern age. However, certain traditional precepts or their interpretations are an obstacle to playing such a role. The present article seeks to analyze this intellectual attempt in the frameworks mentioned.This attempt would prevent the isolation of Islam in its own environment and in the new world circumstances.

As a political system emanated from the Islamic Revolution, and in the framework of the principle of call to the right, the Islamic Republic of Iran has laid exporting revolution in the agenda of its foreign policy. So exporting revolution is considered a principle and goal in the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic. However, exporting revolution has found different meanings in different stages of Iranian foreign policy benefiting from various patterns and means. Thus it is possible to talk about different patterns of exporting revolution in the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The present article demonstrates that the dominant pattern of exporting revolution in the foreign policy of the 9th administration is establishment and presentation of Islamic just government in the framework of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The hegemony of conservative justice-seeking discourse in the foreign policy of the 9th administration, politico - economic developments in Iranian society, developments in Iraq, and undermining the U.S position in this country, the 33 day Lebanese war, and the 22 day war of Ghaza are among the determining factors of adopting such a pattern of exporting revolution in the foreign policy of the 9th administration.

Looking at the history of Spain in the middle Ages, we find out that Muslims have dominated and ruled in this land for a period, while Christians being subjects. For another period as a result of changes in political affairs, Muslims were defeated and Christians dominated. On both occasions, the ruling class would conclude covenants with the defeated one towards further interactions. These treaties, concluded through the culture of dialogue, would define a framework towards guaranteeing the survival of defatted groups which were quite different from the ruling class in terms of religion, culture, and ethnic tendencies. Furthermore, these treaties would provide an opportunity for conquerors to convert the defeated people gradually. Discussing the concept of covenant in the Islamic culture, the present article deals with two types of these treaties very few of which have survived. It also discusses certain concepts such as covenant, one under covenant, and covenant land.

The most important foreign policy heritage of the Bush administration for Obama is the very weak public visage of the United States in the world, and among Muslims in the Middle East, in particular. This is why Obama has introduced revival of America’s soft power management at international level as one of his "change strategy" elements. Middle East region will be the U.S priority to apply such a policy to because of the fact that public hatred of America reflects disgusting the US policies in the Middle East. On the other hand, Islamic republic of Iran possesses proper influential power in the region, due to many historical, cultural, and religious common foundations with Middle Eastern countries.This study aims at comparing methods, employed by Iran and America to apply their soft power elements in the Middle East, and analyzing the effectiveness degree of these two countries’ soft power in the region and the impacts of Iran and America’s soft power orientations on the public opinion of the Middle Eastern societies.The findings of this research indicate that, in contrast with Islamic republic of Iran, America’ s soft power application and its influence in the Middle Eastern societies has an unusual procedure.