FOREIGN RELATIONS
Year:2011 | Volume:3 | Issue:10|Papers Count:9

Given the fact that the United States is the most powerful state on the planet, its decisions and policies infl question here is how its decisions are made. Are they the result of internal politics and democratic processes? Or are they devised based on the ideas and judgments of the ruling elite or pressure groups? This article aims to st decision-making in U.S. foreign policy and examining institutions, processes and elements used by interest groups to influence the decision-making system. The authors present a model to show how the U.S. decision formal and informal institutions and how pressure groups can directly influence foreign policy.

Studying Obama a's new national security doctrine, this article e tries to answer the fo ollowing questions: Does the doctrine denote e total "change"? Or haas "continuity" simultaneously its own plaace in Obama's strategicic plans? This article argues that Obama' ss new national security y doctrine contains the rhetoric of "change" e" and seeks to overcom me the challenges faced by the United States under Bush by legitim mizing its power and regaining the confidenc nce of world public opipinion. But, the "change" does not affecct the principles of U.S S. hegemonic power and involves the elem ment of "continuity" in developing that capacity. Hegemonic pow wer is based on material al capacities and gaining the consent of other actors and allies. Moreovover, paying attention to both sides of hege emonic power elevates a a major power from the status of "domina nating" hegemony to tha hat of "leading" hegemony. To reach the l latter objective, Obam ma has adopted a three-pronged appr proach; multilateralism aas well as emphasis on the economy and d new regional potentia als. This approach is mostly different from BBush's approach toward na national security. Although Obama's new do octrine will provoke aa series of developments at the regiona al and international leve vels, challenges and ambiguities related t to the approach will ultim timately lead to its failure.

Relations between en Turkey and Israel are of great importance due to Tel Aviv and AAnkara's influence; especially from the Isslamic Republic of Iran n's point of view. Their alliance in 1996 poosed a serious threat to o Iran, but it seems that during the past de decade, relations between n them have become tense with positive resu ults for Iran. This trend ha has been particularly noticeable after the J Justice and Development nt Party's ascent to power in Turkey. Therrefore, studying domestic tic, regional and trans-regional developmentts and their impact on rrelations between Turkey and Israel as well as on the I.R.I. is of grreat importance. After reviewing developme ents in Turkey-Israel rel lations in the past decade, this article conclcludes that those ties w will not be severed although they will te end to diverge. This rresearch argues that this will have po ositive consequences for or Iranian foreign policy, which is faced d with complexities and d difficulties in the region.

Egypt is an impo ortant state in the Arab and Muslim world be ecause of its ancient civi ilization and very large population. It is also oneone of the most influenntial actors in the Middle East. The histor ory of modernization andnd reform in the country can be traced bac ck two centuries, and is s characterized by many civil groups and socio­ political currents s. In spite of this, the main question is why Egypt has seen continue ued authoritarianism under Mubarak. The col ollapse of this governme ent is not in this research's focus. In this artic cle, the roots of the con nsolidation of authoritarianism in Egypt afte ter the 1980s are expla ained based on structure-agency theory. Inn this article, the hyypothesis is that authoritarian govern nment, undemocratic ellites and severe political, economic and legal-structural limitatio tions on the one hand and a serious deficit in cn civil agents and lead ers (weakness of horizontal ties and laack of collaboration between them) led to the consolidatio on of authoritarianism with superficial democracy during the pastt three decades

The main purpose se of this study is to describe and explain why y there needs to be an ex xpansion of economic ties between Iran and A Africa. The Ahmadinej ad administration has adopted a constr ructive engagement po olicy accompanied with a counter-hege emony interaction strate egy to improve Iran's position in the develloping world. The aim of the policy is to challenge the current nat ture of the internationa al system as well. Overall, the approachh has highlighted the importance of relations with Africa in ter rms of south-south inter raction. The special conditions of Africa as w well as its numerous cou untries and economic and institutional capab bilities has led Iran to a adopt public diplomacy as the main instrume ent for taking advantage e of Africa's potentials. However, Africa's situ tuation and its urgent ne eed for development on the one hand and the mode of interaction bet etween emerging powers and the continent onon the other hand sugg gest that Iran needs to boost economic tie es and interaction with African states to enhance its soft power. HHence, Iran's public dipl lomacy and economy will inevitably need tto pay attention to econnomic ties as well as political engagement wt with African countries s in order to develop.

India has made great efforts to join the club of the world's mos most powerful industr rialized nations during the past few decade s. But one of the momost important challenges facing this rrapidly industrializing co ountry is its shortage of energy resources. In ndia is one of the biggesst energy consumers in the world while it do oes not have sufficient domestic energy resources. This has crcreated concerns for Indi dian statesmen, who need to provide nec cessary security for prodduction and transfer of energy from outsidde the country. The maiin hypothesis of this research is that India's eefforts to secure access to energy are influenced by the structure o of the international systtem. Therefore, the diplomacy of interdepen ndence is transforming in nto constructivist policy and a collaborative m model based on global vavalues in the modern era. These changes in IIndia's energy policies an and their impact on relations between India a and the countries of the C Caspian basin are explored in this article as a case study.

Population grow wth and the expansion of the needs ofof the agricultural and industrial sectors in the Harirud basin coun untries (Afghanistan, IIran and Turkmenistan) have revealed d the inefficiency of rrestricted approaches and plans for solvin ng the problem of drouught in the region. Regional cooperation in water affairs needs to p pay attention to the importance of water for humhuman security. In this framework, mechanisms such as managem ment of integrated water resources, establishment of joint commission ons for development and d water plans, optimization of water consump mption, modernization of f irrigation methods, determination of water pprices, and adoption of a la legal regime can promote regional cooperatiotion in the Harirud basin, i n, in accordance with the shared interests of pepeople living in the regio on.

The realist par aradigm has dominated research related ed to international rela ations theory since the Second World Wa ar. But today, many anoomalies and dilemmas are threatening its main assumptions. The e solution for this problem does not lie in a c change in paradigm. RRather, we can revise realism in a progr ressive manner. Through th this method, we can remove anomalies withith the introduction of ne new assumptions, which in turn would lead to the discovery of new w facts. Hence, this article tries to answeer the question of to whhat extent realism has had the ability to recon nstruct itself in the light ht of developments during the two past de ecades, drawing upon its s four main assumptions (anarchy, power, na ational interests, and bal lance of power) and casting doubt on their concncepts and functions.