IRANIAN REVIEW OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Year:2019 | Volume:10 | Issue:2 (30)|Papers Count:6

Iraq has been the most prominent example of divergence and identity crisis in recent decades. The multiplicity of ethnic, religious, and power sharing groups has caused political and social divisions. Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis are the main players in this split. The ethnic has divided Iraq into two Kurdish and Arab communities, and the religious one into Shiite and Sunni groups. With the victory of the Islamic Revolution there were fundamental changes in Iran's foreign policy at the regional level and toward its neighbors. At the same time, Saddam's dictatorship did not provide an opportunity to express different ethnicities and identities. The US invasion to Iraq and the overthrow of the Ba'athist regime brought Iraq into a new and unstable phase, with various groups and ethnicities trying to express their conflicting political and social identity goals and demands. The regional countries particularly the Islamic Republic of Iran, have expanded their influence in Iraq by changing their foreign policy orientation based on their regional goals and national security, to prevent other competitors increasing their influence. The main purpose of the present study is to analyze and investigate the identity crisis impact in Iraq on the Islamic Republic of Iran foreign policy orientation by emphasizing on the post-Saddam era from 2003 to 2020 by using Constructivism Theory. The paper, based on the nature and type of the subject, uses a descriptive-analytical method and the library resources to collect data and information.

‘ Jihad’ is one of the important and sacred practices in Islamic perspective. However, recently it has been taken as a weapon against Islam and Muslims. Today, there are two main attitudes in Islamic world which both at the same emphasis on Jihad with two different approaches: Imami and Takfiris. Thus, our issue is the relation between Jihad and terrorism. The main question of the present paper is “ how this relation can be plotted by two main political Islam approaches; Imami and Takfiri? We examined two dominant political Islamist attitudes: Shiite Imami and Salafi-Takfiri Perspective, based on the views of both major leaders and thinkers. The paper argues that there are differences between these two viewpoints, such as: Jihad motivation, purpose, the relationship between means and the target, Jurisprudential position of Jihad, the opposite side, morality, spirituality and the distinction suicide attacks and martyrdom. In addition, other important aspect in Imami thought is the nature of Islam based on kindness, mercy, option, coexistence, and peace among Muslims and people of the worlds. Research findings concludes that based on Imami approach, Jihad is "a defensive act" to adjudication, disposal of oppression and it is opposes terrorist acts which are originally aggressive and inhuman. While in Takfiri approach using violence and terror are used a mean to spread Islam.

The rivalry between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East can be examined based on fundamental variables affecting the foreign policy behavior of each of these two actors. Among the effective variables are internal factors and resources that have a significant impact on the process of foreign policy behavior. Internal resources can be defined on two principles: first: material internal factors, such as military power, political system structure, economic power, and geopolitical position, and second: intangible internal factors, such as identity and ideology. Each of these can explain how the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia compete in the Middle East; Accordingly, this article tries to answer the question with a descriptive-analytical method, what are the internal factors affecting the competition between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia? In this regard, it tests the main hypothesis that domestic factors are the main source of regional competition between the two countries. Therefore, in this research, an attempt is made to examine each of these factors using theoretical framework of neoclassical realism and with emphasis on a single level of this theory.

Since 1979 Iran’ s foreign policy has swung from pan-Islamism to nationalism, from ideology to pragmatism, from dé tente to post-dé tente. This article aims at explaining how domestic factionalism has affected Iran’ s foreign policy over the past 40 years and, vice-versa, how it has been shaped by external stimuli. Factionalism can be considered as an intervenient variable which, alongside the external environment, may have an impact on Iran’ s foreign policy making. But it can also be considered as a dependent variable which may be affected by external constraints. I argue that when factionalism emerges, Iran’ s foreign policy generally tends to be characterized by ideology. However, this may also be a function of increasing external pressures. At the same time, factionalism is generally toned down when either domestic imperatives or external forces push Iran to adopt a more pragmatic stance in foreign affairs. The background argument is that despite an influential role of religion in the country’ s politics and policies, Iran has remained committed to defensive and realist imperatives for most of the last 40 years. The main questions here addressed are: how does factional politics in Iran reflect upon a certain foreign policy making? How does factionalism is in turn affected by external challenges/ threats and how does it translate either into an ideological or a realist and pragmatic foreign policy?

Identification of reliable and stable markets is one of the most important requirements for oil and natural gas exports. The importance of this issue can be answered from standpoint of energy security demands. China, India and the European Union are Iran's potential strategic energy markets, regardless of sanctions. In October 2014 The European Council agreed on a new 2030 Framework for climate and energy, including EU-wide targets and policy objectives for the period between 2020 and 2030. In this study, we seek to investigate the effects of this policy on the security of Iran's energy demand. To this end, we examine the effects of this policy on the energy demand of one of the EU countries, namely Greece, which was also a customer of Iranian oil. Despite the fact that the EU Energy Strategy 2030 reduces the security of Iran's energy demand, it is necessary to examine the possible scenarios of this strategy and assess the Iran's situation in each of these scenarios. During the next ten years Greece energy policies will have to be harmonized with the European Union Directives, focusing on the reduction of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, penetration of renew able energy sources (RES) and energy saving. In this study, Goalprogramming method is used to model the macro-energy policies of Greece up to the 2030 EU Energy Strategy. After creating the mathematical model of goal programming, environment scenario and Renewable efficiency and Influence scenario have developed. The Shannon-Wiener index and the share of oil and natural gas in primary energy in Renewable efficiency and Influence are higher than in environment scenario. Therefore, Renewable efficiency and Influence scenario in EU countries is favorable for Iran in terms of increasing security of energy demand in 2030.

The beginning of the political crisis in Syria, each regional and trans-regional actors have adopted different policies based on their interests and goals in relation to this country. Syria is an exceptional issue for countries in the region and the world's powers like the United States of America, and any transformation in that form might have a fundamental impact on the interests of each of these regional and global powers. Turkey as a regional power and the United States has always been present in the Syrian crisis as a regional power based on its interests. But the United' support of the present groups in Syria has sought to fight ISIS extremists, which Turkey has called for terrorist groups to reduce the US and Turkey relations. The present study was conducted using descriptive-analytic method and using documentation sources to provide a theoretical framework, the question of why Turkey is against United States about the Syrian Kurdish issue? This study investigates the presence of United States in Syria and the support of Kurdish groups, as well as the reaction that Turkey and Iran have been involved in. The findings of this article indicate that the United States support the Kurdish groups in northern Syria has led to conflict of interest between the two countries.