HORIZONS OF SECURITY
Year:2019 | Volume:12 | Issue:43|Papers Count:6

The Islamic Republic of Iran's security school is based on the three criteria of dignity, wisdom and expediency of the system. It consists of five aspects of sustainable security of the Islamic Republic of Iran categorized into two soft and hard dimensions, which result in guaranteeing territorial integrity, establishing and modeling of good governance and social integration in the process of the transformation of nation to Islamic Ummah. In the meantime, the role of security agents (whether formal or informal) in the security school is based on the strategies of maintaining the status quo, current realities, opportunity-orientation, offensive defense, and deterrence in threat-opportunity exchange and its security management comprises the basis of this research. The study is aimed at placing security agents in the governance levels and pointing out their missions and duties. This research mainly involves the question of what the positions and functions of security agents are in the security school of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is qualitative research in terms of methodology which follows documentary method (content analysis) for data collection and expert judgment (Delphi technique) to design the conceptual model of security school of the Islamic Republic of Iran and identify the position of security agents in two formal and informal dimensions. Based on the method of this research, four layers including governance, social security, security system of the state and sustainable security are designed according to which the position of security agents are identified and explained.

The power and influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran have increased significantly since the victory of the Islamic Revolution through a complementry combination of internal and external factors. Reinforcement of integration and identity self-awareness, Islamic revivalism and awakening, the development of a the discourse of resistance and confrontation with the domination system, and presenting models for multiple Islamic movements can be considered as manifestations of the Islamic Republic of Iran's soft power at the regional level. Syria and Iraq can be introduced as countries where the manifestations of Iran's soft power and soft strategic depth are particularly prominent. Iran's power and influence were not only noticeable in the pre-ISIS period, but can also be observed in the post-ISIS era upwardly. Hence, the main question of this study involves how the explanations of the increase in the soft power and strategic depth of Iran in Syria and Iraq after the emergence of ISIS could have been possible. The findings indicated that the development of soft power and soft strategic depth of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Syria and Iraq after the emergence of ISIS can be attributed to the following factors: promotion and reproduction of resistive culture, giving inspiration and increasing the role of Iran in the policy of Iraqi and Syrian governments, enhancing cultural and economic exchanges and making alliances with regional and trans-regional powers, and strengthening the frontier movements to confront the dominating powers. This is a descriptive-analytical research whose data is collected through library method.

A significant part of the country's economic diplomacy entails targeting export objectives and providing the necessary diplomatic platforms to support exporting internal products, which play an important role in enhancing the production and economic development of the society. Given the importance of exports in economic flourishing and the significance of economic diplomacy in the development of exports during the sanction situation, this research is intended to addresses the question regarding the countries of the world that provide comparatively the highest advantage in accepting Iranian products. This is a vital issue because policymakers and executives of the country's economic affairs have to prepare the necessary background to direct and encourage producers and exporters by identifying and prioritizing the target countries for Iranian exports, and play their role in the production processes. This research employs the modified RCA index and the data issued by the World Bank as well as the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran to pinpoint and prioritize the proper countries. Contrary to popular perception, the results indicated that Iran's economic diplomacy requires a serious turnaround in its targeting of western and eastern developed countries to less developed and developing countries, especially neighbors of Iran. Afghanistan (index=161), Iraq (index: 65), Syria (index: 18), Turkmenistan (index: 17), and Georgia (index: 14), are the most prior countries for Iran's export. Moreover, Armenia, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and the UAE are the next five countries, respectively. However, allocating more than 67 percent of the country's exports to five destinations, while 41 percent is given to two countries, can be a threatening case. It could be eliminated by diversifying export targets which can greatly enhance the country's export security. Economic diplomacy is the most important factor in achieving these goals.

Islamic Republic of Iran’ s nuclear program is a major issue in Trump's foreign and security policy in the West Asia (the Middle East). Although it was thought that the West's attitude towards the nuclear agreement of 5+1 countries’ Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) would undermine Washington's Iran-phobia policy, after Trump's entrance into the White House and his offensive measures as well as those of his cabinet members, Iran's nuclear program was again considered seriously in Washington's agenda. Hence, the main question of this study relates to the approach that Trump’ s administration has taken towards the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear issue. In response, we hypothesize that Trump and US officials have exaggerated Iran's peaceful nuclear program to claim that it is a threat for the region and for the whole world security, resorting to the premise that Iran is using it for the construction of nuclear bombs. Making use of threatful and coercive instruments, America tries to stop the growing missile capabilities and regional influence of Iran as its main Middle East goal and policy. This, in turn, can shape regional equations and order in line with the goals and interests of Washington and its regional allies and weaken Iran's growing power and influence in the region. The findings of the study indicate that Trump administration's policy of achieving its short-term goals, such as the economic-political collapse of Iran in a year, or bringing Tehran to the negotiating table through US provisions, as a result of maximum economic sanctions and pressure, has faced failure. In this research qualitative analysis method was used for data analysis.

During the internal crisis of Syria, a geopolitically and geo-strategically significant country in West Asia, the behavior and measures of the local, regional and international actors emerged differently. America, as a superpower seeking global interests, tried to serve its interests as well as those of its regional allies through an interventionist approach to the Syrian crisis. Initially, it sought to overthrow the Assad regime and hit its allies by supporting the Syrian Arab opposition. With the Syrian government's legal request of Iran and Russia to enter the country and disrupt the balance of power in Syria, the Americans failed to achieve their primary goals. The feebleness and defeat of the Arab opposition against the Syrian government and its allies pushed the Americans closer to the Kurds so that they could make use of Kurdish interests in Syria for supporting their own interests. The main question of this research entails the components of US strategy and goals in relation to the Kurds in the events of Syria. The hypothesis answering the key question proposes that US foreign policy toward the Syrian Kurds is rationally developed to disturb the balance of Iran-Russia-Syria alliance and the resistance axis and prevent Turkish excessive ambition. This is a descriptive-analytical research using library resources for data collection. The results indicated that America's proximity to the Kurds has been successful in establishing a Kurdish entity and employing it for encountering the mentioned threats since the alliance until 2019.

Following the outbreak of the Islamic awakening in West Asia (the Middle East) and North Africa, a new approach was established in the relationship between regional powers, especially between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia. Although the relationship between the two countries had previously been based on a kind of mistrust and close political, geopolitical and ideological rivalries, the important characteristics of this era was the change of power and politics in the West Asian region, especially since 2012. From 2012, the region countered major regional security and political challenges, placing the two countries far away from each other. This research is an attempt to answer the question of what causes made two countries go back to previous mistrust in their relationship. Furthermore, what are the possible scenarios for the continuation of the two countries relationship? The findings, based on the theory of political constructivism and derived from written and virtual sources as well as the combined methods of historical and futuristic sociology, indicated that the major causes of backward movement in the relationship between the two countries can be categorized as soft and hard factors. The hard components include the development of heavy military and weaponry contracts and the militarization of West Asia (the Middle East), the attempt to develop terrorism in the political geography of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the effective role of Riyadh in the Syrian crisis, Saudi’ s pragmatic positions in the Iraqi crisis, the military aggression against Yemen and Ansarollah movement, and Riyadh's standpoint on the Palestinian issue and the repression of the Saudi Shiites. Soft components include the expansion of security coalitions with the Zionist regime, Saudi’ s hostile position towards Iran's nuclear dealing (JCPOA), and splitting the Shiite resistance front focusing on Iraq.