FOREIGN RELATIONS
Year:2010 | Volume:2 | Issue:6|Papers Count:7

A number of theorists consider U.S. policy towards the Persian Gulf as in line with its efforts at gaining hegemonic status at the world level, given this region's pivotal role in world politics. Nonetheless, the United States has faced serious challenges and obstacles to the consolidation of its hegemonic status in the Persian Gulf region in the post-Cold War era. Opposition of regional actors like Iran to U.S. hegemony and U.S. failure in such areas as Iraq are considered as obstacles to U.S. hegemony in the region. At the same time, other great powers, though they have close relations with the United States, are worried about the full superiority of an actor over all the others. Therefore, although balancing efforts in its hardware style are of no place in the great powers' strategies any more, software balancing attempts still continue. The main question this paper seeks to answer is how the great powers have reacted to U.S. hegemony-seeking behavior in the Persian Gulf in the post-Cold War era. Furthermore, what challenges U.S. hegemony-seeking conducts have been faced with in the Persian Gulf apart from the reactions of the great powers?

All theories of international relations are based on certain meta-theoretical foundations including ontological, epistemological, and methodological bases. Based on these foundations, the meta-theoretical presumptions of the theories of international relations differ. An Islamic theory of international relations, if any, is not an exception to this rule. In this paper, the author seeks to extract and explain such meta-theoretical foundations which distinguish it from other theories of international relations. Hence, this paper provides the grounds for processing and offering of an Islamic theory of international relations as based on Islamic teachings. In this way, the meta-theoretical foundations that have been extracted can be utilized as presumptions of this theory within the context of its scientific and religious studies.

The question of Islam and its influence in political, social, cultural and economic environment is among the issues that have long attracted attention. Some have considered the impact of Islam as a mere threat or opportunity and some have viewed it as threat and opportunity simultaneously, stressing the need to nation-building and construction of culture among the Muslim immigrants and their offspring who become nationals and citizens. The process of transformation of Islam from a universal religion and school to a civil religion begins with the open fist attitude in which the Muslim immigrants have to open their fists, becoming Americans, otherwise, they are considered as mere threat or opportunity mixed with serious threat. Indeed, the opening of fist and subsequently fisting the open cultural, political, social, economic and security space in the United States include the main narrative of explanation, analysis and recommendation on the status of Islam and Muslims in the United States. This paper deals with the interrelationship between opening the fist and fisting of the open space.

Obama's foreign policy can be regarded as a function of structural needs and necessities in the United States. During the 2002-2006 period, the grounds were provided for criticizing George Bush's behavioral patterns in U.S. political structure. U.S. bureaucratic structures and political elites concluded that such a process would entail extensive security risks for the United States. U.S. policy of change was organized in such a process, but in practice it was faced with significant changes. This paper seeks to extrapolate the factors responsible for Obama's rise to power at the domestic and international levels. On the other hand, the indicators of the change policy are explained and its impact on Obama's political conduct and foreign policy is studied. This will be explained within the structuralist approach in the American society. Therefore, reversible processes in Obama's foreign policy can be viewed as affected by structural and bureaucratic parameters in the American society. Under such circumstances, the roles of executive authorities who make decisions are diminished.

At the age of globalization, no territorial entity can be considered that lacks world interaction. Whenever the entity in question possesses significant capacities, the necessity of world interaction will be further felt. Possessing essential capacities and capabilities, the Islamic Republic of Iran has to have acceptable world interaction. Although this necessity has been widely acknowledged in the political system's instruments, some performances contradict the goals and policy-makings. This paper seeks to explore why there is a gap between the goals and performances concerning positive world interaction. The author is on the belief that this problem arises largely from the political elites' outlooks on the nature of the international system and world environment, affecting the quality of world interaction. On the other hand, political elites' ambivalence to the grey boundaries of different communications alternatives has created an unsustainable trend in the way of world interaction that needs to be revised.

Fear of Iran and considering it as a threat are widely found among the Middle Eastern states as well as on the world scale. The author, in this paper, has explored the causes of this phenomenon and its repercussions for Iran's international status. The author argues that Iranophobia is derived from two categories of structural and non-structural factors. Strength, geographical proximity and aggressive power are among the structural causes of Iranophobia, whereas aggressive intentions and promotion of fear of Iran represent the non-structural causes of the phenomenon. According to the author, the repercussions of Iranophobia include the forging of a coalition with the United States at the pivot and the adoption of soft and hard balancing strategies for containing Iran.

Most strategists believe that the possibility of outbreak of a major war among the great powers in the current international system is scant, but energy and its security is one of the few areas which still have the capacity to give rise to a major war. This is important because the warning on approaching the peak oil becomes more serious day by day. This warning indicates that the end of the oil age is imminent. Explaining the concept of peak oil and the degree of its seriousness, this paper seeks to clarify the aspects and consequences of the end of the oil age.