POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE
Year:2007 | Volume:3 | Issue:5|Papers Count:8

One of the frequently-asked and complex questions in the history of the political thought of mankind is that of justice. So all political thinkers have dealt with it the questions of "What is justice?" "What is a just act?" and "What is a just decision" have through the ages met different responses.In any event, justice as a beyond historical phenomenon is an eternal concern of divine religions and, in particular, Islamic thought. Justice itself is of so high significance in Islamic thought that we find abundant discussions on the issue in the Holy Quran and the Sunna. Consequently, it has always been one of the most controversial religious concepts elaborated on by Muslim thinkers including philosophers, theologians, and jurisprudents.The Present article attempts to survey the concept of justice from the perspective of Imam Ali (p.b.u.h). It is note-worthy that Imam Ali is the only infallible Imam throughout the history of Islam who assumed the reins of political power, and led the Mulslim community in spite of all its complex political events and the wide gaps within it.

Justice is considered as one of the principles and virtues covering a wide range at the scene of practice and application. Thus the question of the relation of justice to other phenomena in human life is regarded an old question acquiring new dimensions and angles day after day.The author here raises the question of the proportion of justice to two essential fields of politics, i.e national and international ones: To give a domestic response to this question, the author has set the managerial conduct of imam Khumeini as the basis of his analysis since it enjoys the qualities of being original and up-to - date both.Analyzing the thought and practice of Imam khumeini in the field of political justice, the author has seen two different, yet supplementary, aspects of justice expressing them as the affirmative theory of justice, and the negative theory of justice.According to the affirmative theory, justice plays a role in creating religious policy through cultural, ethical, and legal moderation. However, the negative theory of justice introduces justice through capability, success, legalism, and authority. What establishes a link between these two aspects of justice is observing the principle of "moderation" in knowing, defining, and applying justice, a principle having a full manifestation in the thought and practice of Imam khumeini.

Since foreign policy deals with the regulation of the relations of the actor in the field of foreign relations, it is distinguished from that of domestic policy.That is why a great number of analysts consider indeterminacy as a necessary requirement of the nature of this political field, thus refraining from submission to conservatism.Adopting a different approach to foreign policy, the author in the present article attempts to explain and confirm the conservatism approach in the field of foreign policy.To achieve this goal, the author defines the foreign policy in Iran and introduces different stages of its historical development ranging from the victory of the Islamic Revolution up to now. In the historical process of this development, the administration of president Ahmadi Nizhad is studied as a case study of conservatism.The author attempts in the article to identify the foundations playing the role of principles in the arena of foreign policy. Thus, the article focuses on the basic propositions concerning Islam, Iran, and revolutionary ideals. The author also tries to redefine these elements corresponding to foreign policy.

Islam, as the final divine religion and the true way of the salvation of humanity has largely emphasized justice elaborating and defining it from various angles. Unfortunately, this basic concept has sometimes been misunderstood due to the negligence of certain thinkers. So at certain historical junctures, there is no trace of justice but its name. A matter of concern for scholars in this field is knowing the true meaning of justice and adopting one of its various definitions corresponding to their world view.The present article seeks to find out whether the concept of Islamic justice is compatible with the definitions of justice given by secular, particularly western, thinkers, or it is a totally different concept.The hypothesis of the article suggests that many of these thinkers have followed the right way in defining and expounding the concept of justice to a considerable extent. The only problem with them is that they have dealt with just one aspect of a multidimensional issue disregarding other dimensions and bases.However, Islam has seen justice from different perspectives adopting a comprehensive view on the subject, the result of which would be the satisfaction of everybody’s right in the Islamic just society.The present article studies firstly the gradual development of the concept of justice in Islam and the west, applying the descriptive, analytical, and comparative methods and benefiting from library method facilities. Further, it compares them in a logical way.

The victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the establishment of the Islamic Republic system based on the theory of the Guardianship of the Jurisprudent completed the backgrounds of the growth and sublimity of political thought among Shia, a fact having emerged and flourished in the recent century.The accumulation of historical experiences of Shiite scholars and thinkers from the Constitutional Revolution till the victory of the Islamic Revolution, novel and matchless initiatives of Imam khumeyni, and invaluable asset of three decades of the government of the Islamic Republic brought about necessary conditions for the proper understanding of modem political concepts and institutions in the modem political discourse of Shia.Thus Shia, for the first time, has managed to tackle the challenges facing them on the clash of tradition and modernity, benefiting from the instrument of Ijtihad (independent authority of Muslim jurists in legal matters).They have succeeded in entering the stage of instituting the Islamic system, i.e. customizing and theorizing based on pure Islamic sources. Theorizing on the structure of the Islamic government in the contemporary age and the theory of religious democracy are among the fruits of this modem discourse.

The structure of complex interdependence system has given rise to the fact that policy and diplomacy of states follow the very principles and objectives defined and formulated by the structures of the world politico-economic system.Consequently, the influence of cultural, political, and particularly economic factors and elements in domestic as well as foreign arenas in the era of the sovereignty of beyond national forces on foreign policy and diplomatic positions is one of the most significant points worthy of attention.Therefore, the present article, following a politico-economic approach, takes for granted the fact that economic structure is a very significant and determining factor in directing an efficient foreign policy and diplomacy. However, we should not fail to see the influence of this factor in the light of its relations with other key factors such as the ruling political ideology, interactions and relations of social and class groups, institutional function of state, and finally various links between domestic and foreign actors which are not immunized against the structure of the world economic system.Thus efficient diplomacy, within the complex interdependence framework, pursues the common good of the parties to politico – economic and even military - security relations. This, of course, would not be free from disputes over the distribution of the share of each of the parties.Expanding the domain of its activities and moving from unilateralism and bilateralism toward multilateralism, efficient diplomacy also lies on collective cooperation.

Presenting certain definitions of traditional diplomacy based on its own context, the present article deals with the issue of public diplomacy, and its interaction and application as one of the instruments of foreign policy.This research covers such issues as the various theoretical and practical definitions of public diplomacy in accordance with the views of well recognized theoreticians, semantic overlapping of public diplomacy with the concepts of propaganda and public relations, communication pyramid of public diplomacy, and its general objectives in foreign policy. It deals particularly with the application of public diplomacy in the foreign policy of the United States.Mentioning different approaches toward public diplomacy within U.S administration, the present article discusses certain instances of the instruments of public diplomacy.The author concludes with the presentation, significance, and necessity of application of public diplomacy as a modem instrument in planning, formulating, and implementing foreign policy.Attempting to refer to the works and articles devoted to the issue, the article is fully documented with the official reports of the U.S administration in this regard. Some of the reports are as follows: the 2003 report of the United States Commission on Planning the Strategy of National Security; the 2001 performance report of Bureau of Public Affairs, the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, the U.S Department of State; the 2004 report of Advisory Commission of Public Diplomacy, the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State; and the 2004 - 2009 strategic fiveyear plan of Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of State.