POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY QUARTERLY
Year:2022 | Volume:7 | Issue:2|Papers Count:6

During the last few decades, the social, economic and political links within the cities have faced fundamental changes. Urban governance is a process that is formed based on the interaction between the official organizations and institutions of the city administration on the one hand and the informal institutions of the civil society or the public arena on the other hand. The main purpose of this article is to investigate the state of good urban governance in the metropolis of Tehran and to study the better administration of the territory and the provision of better and more services to the citizens. The research method of this article is quantitative-qualitative. In this study, using six indicators of good urban governance, namely, participation, effectiveness and efficiency, justice, transparency, legality and responsibility, were measured in the study area using a one-sample T-test. The statistical population of the research is the citizens of 14 districts out of 22 districts of Tehran city and the sample size is 370 people who were randomly selected using Cochran's formula. The results of the test indicate that the urban management in the studied area (fourteen districts of Tehran) is not in accordance with the principles of good urban governance and according to the six mentioned indicators, it is not in a good condition, so that each of these indicators of good governance “A” city is lower than the average value of the average rank. Therefore, it can be said that inefficient, centralized and top-down management causes the lack of attention to long-term and strategic plans, the weakness of the structure and position of the Islamic City Council, the non-operationalization of local councils, and the lack of participation of citizens in the administration of city affairs.

A large part of the development process of geopolitics has been owed to the theories that have been put forward by world-minded scientists in the last two centuries. Geopolitical theories with the nature of predicting the future of world system have generally been proposed with the centrality of different geographical positions in the field of global power competition. The main goal of this research is to analyze the role of the United States in the geopolitical theories of the three classical, modern and postmodern eras with reference to reliable international sources based on two ranges of American and non-American theorists. Data has been collected in the form of documents and libraries and information has been analyzed in descriptive-analytical method. This article, by examining 30 theories of geopolitical theorists, has been argued that each of these thinkers, according to the strategy and interests of their country, somehow shows the role of the United States in the world order as a threat or opportunity in the global geopolitical system. Therefore, from the beginning of geopolitical theorizing in the late 19th century until 2020, the hegemonic footprint of the United States is always visible. The research question: what is the role of the United States, as a birthplace of geopolitical theories, in the geopolitical theorizing of the three classical, modern, and postmodern periods? And the hypothesis of the research is that most of the geopolitical theories in the intellectual space of the mentioned three periods have paid attention to the hegemonic position of this power in the world order; Also, the domineering approach of American thinkers and practical advice to the statesmen of this country, from Alfred Mahan's theory in 1890 to Francis Sempa's theory in 2020, has continued.

The discovery of gas reserves has a significant impact on the economic, geopolitical and political balance in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The development of gas fields and the motivation of government actors for possible extraction and export have led to the formation an energy region in the Eastern Mediterranean. Although in the classical theories of regionalism, the formation of a region is related to the geographical affinity and the security motivation of government actors, and social, cultural and economic factors are considered as dependent and secondary elements, in this research, an attempt has been made to consider energy as an independent factor in the formation of the region. This issue has caused the role of other actors and factors in the formation of the Eastern Mediterranean regional order to be emphasized. The main question of the article is what are the factors involved in the formation of an energy region and what effect have they had on regional security and order, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean region? The hypothesis of this article is that the exploration of energy and the emergence of the energy region in the Eastern Mediterranean have caused various actors, including the market, companies and national and international regulators prevented direct geopolitical conflicts by putting pressure on the governments of the region, and provided platforms for cooperation and, in other words, indirect competition.

Throughout history, political geographers have paid special attention to the effects of the Middle East region on global powers and the effects of Middle East crises on the balance of power at the regional levels. In recent years, the crisis of the Syrian civil war has been one of the developments that have turned this country into a new camp on the line of strategic competition. The destabilization project of Syria was raised as a factor in the direction of weakening the resistance front and regional containment of Iran. Therefore, the Syrian crisis provided an arena for the presence of regional and trans-regional actors in the Middle East region. Lebanon's Hezbollah that is one of the allies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Resistance Front played a prominent role in the victory of the Resistance Front against the opposition forces of the Syrian regime. Hezbollah has focused on the Syrian civil war, according the regional goals of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The main question of the current research is that what were the most important achievements of the Hezbollah in the Syria and which role did the Hezbollah play in Iran's regional policies? The results showed that the military and strategic achievements were the most important ones of Hezbollah in the Syrian civil war. In this regard, Hezbollah was able to play an effective role in Iran's regional policies.

A major part of human behavior is subject to their perception of their environment. Sharing the group's interests gives meaning to their social and political behavior. In the meantime, the tribe as a biological/cultural unit in which the interests of the group are expressed in a form that leads to tribal action and the members behave on the values related to the perception of the place. In the geography of elections, the tribalism observes the effect of locational elements on the preferences affecting the behavior of voters living in certain areas as a voting base. The current research is an applied one in nature. It is based on the assumption that in the tenth period of the Islamic Parliament elections, local/tribal tendencies were the most effective factor in creating the voting base of the candidates of Mamsani constituency. Voting base of candidates in this area was more than a function of democracy macro process; it has been reflected in the theme of kinship and in the form of reproduction of traditional tribal alliances. The data and findings required for the current research were collected by documentary method (books, publications and internet) and fieldwork (observation and interview). Data were analyzed by descriptive-analytical research method and using GIS and Excel software. The study has been done using the data taken from the statistics of the 10th period of the Islamic Council elections. The result of the research showed that the origin of hometown and tribal votes played an effective role in the electoral candidates of the 10th election cycle of Mamsani.

Geographical space is a system composed of intertwined and interrelated natural, environmental and human factors and elements. These geographic factors sustain different values that adopt political, economic, cultural, security and geopolitical implications according to human needs and perceptions. The effect of geographic factors on economics has always played a role in human life. These factors as the sources of power acquire a geopolitical nature when the countries use them in line with macroeconomic goals. The current study seeks to explain the geopolitical categories of economic power on the basis of the study of geographic factors affecting economic power. The main question of the research maintains what the geopolitical variables of economic power are. This study is based on a theoretical approach and explains the causal relationship between the dependent variable (economic power) and the independent variable (geopolitical variables). Information and data collecting are arranged in terms of library. The research method is descriptive-analytical. In response to the main research question, three types of geopolitical conceptual variables are explained which are influenced by geographic factors affecting economic power: ‘Geolocation’; ‘Geoculture’ and ‘Geotechnology’.  Each of these conceptual variables includes several geographic factors influencing economic growth and development, which together determine the economic power of a country.