RAHBORD
Year:2012 | Volume:20 | Issue:61|Papers Count:14

While mainstream paradigms for theorization in international relations have shown disregard for the concept of recognition as the need to be seen and accepted, struggle for recognition as an analytical mechanism, has provided better understanding of behavior of governments and their motivational structure. The struggle for recognition in international relations means that international players behave on the basis of their various needs to be recognized. Those needs may range from recognition as a sovereign state to struggle for being recognized for special characteristics. International players, thus, try to have their identity and position recognized in order to have a deeper sense of self-confidence, dignity and contentment.This paper relies on research findings on the struggle for recognition in international relations to review the nature of the concept of recognition before focusing on the struggle for recognition in international relations and conditions under which that struggle takes place. At the end, the author resorts to Social Identity Theory (SIT) in order to expound quality of the struggle for recognition and provide better understanding of the behavior of middle-ranking powers.

World powers are paying increasing attention to energy transfer routes to European and Asian markets through former republics of the Soviet Union as a result of rising global energy demand and emergence of Russia as the 21st century’s “energy superpower.” Energy is central for growth and economic development of Russia. Russia's revenues from energy exports have given it increasing clout in international politics. Energy is currently an important factor shaping Russia’s foreign relations. On the one hand, Moscow needs Central Asian gas to make up for shortage of energy production in West Siberia. On the other hand, Central Asian countries are the main route of oil and gas transfer out of that region. Massive oil and gas reserves of Central Asia can help Russia maintain its supremacy in the Eurasian energy market. The main question of this paper is “What are Russia’s energy policy tools in Central Asia?” The authors presume that Russia needs to regain control over energy sector of the Central Asian countries in order to promote its international standing using energy leverage.

Governments were the main players in international law for a long time and insisted on the integrity of international treaties and believed that changing every word of a bilateral or multilateral treaty would be only possible through collective agreement and consensus of all members. As a result of more cooperation and interaction in multilateral relations among governments, as well as establishment and quantitative and qualitative development of regional and international organizations, and also as a result of efforts made to encourage accession of more governments to international conventions, especially human rights conventions or statutes of international organizations, the issue of the right to reservation has been recognized by the community of international legal experts under specific conditions. In some cases, application of this right to statutes of international organizations is surrounded by ambiguities which constitute the main subject of the present study.

Joint natural resources are those which naturally and without human intervention cross land or sea borders of a country and enter another country’s territory. Such terms as cross-border natural resources and international natural resources are used to elucidate this concept. This term also applies to all natural resources located in territories that are subject of dispute between various states. Although international law has recognized sovereign rights of states on the natural resources located in the continental shelf, there is considerable legal void as to joint natural resources which are shared by two or several states. However, the common procedure used by states and international bodies as well as the existing legal doctrine have pointed to a legal rule which is based on cooperation among concerned states in exploiting such resources. The procedure used by littoral states of the Persian Gulf is an example of that rule. Although there are about ten joint oil and gas fields between Iran and its neighboring countries in the Persian Gulf, for various reasons, most of them are being exploited unilaterally, which is not compatible with the economic interests of Iran.

Caspian Sea is the world’s largest lake; located between Asia and Europe and has no natural connection to oceans and free seas. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Caspian Sea was divided between Iran and the Soviet Union and was known as a joint sea according to bilateral treaties signed by Tehran and Moscow in 1921 and 1940. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and emergence of three new states; Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan, Caspian Sea was practically surrounded by five states. This was the beginning of differences over legal regime of the Caspian Sea and how to the exploit the seabed and underground resources of the sea. According to negotiations which were carried out after collapse of the Soviet Union, various methods were proposed to divide the Caspian Sea none of which has been accepted by all littoral countries yet. Geographical characteristics of the Caspian Sea, existence of huge oil and gas resources, in addition to presence of regional and transregional powers have given rise to various viewpoints on the territorial waters in Caspian Sea and determination of sea borders. This paper discusses the legal regime of the Caspian Sea after collapse of the Soviet Union through a descriptive – analytical approach and in view of the aforesaid facts, explains factors which have been effective in preventing determination of sea borders among littoral countries of the Caspian Sea.

Due to changing nature of the relationship between public officials and citizens in recent years, vast optional discretions have been accorded to administrative officials and “administrative decisions and announcements” resulting from those discretions constitute elements which are used by citizens in making personal and social plans. However, new measures taken by public officials are sometimes different from and even at odds with personal expectations which arise from the past public decisions and announcements. Under these conditions, legal support for “legitimate expectations” of citizens is a requisite of “fairness” and maintaining “public trust” in public administration. The principle of legitimate expectation, as one of the basic principles used to maintain judicial control over administrative measures of government through administrative courts, uses a combination of supporting and compensatory mechanisms to meet demands and expectations of citizens. Review of some cases which have been heard in the Administrative Court of Law shows that after some amendments, it is possible to accept and apply this principle in the administrative legal system of Iran. Therefore, introducing theoretical framework of this principle will not only add a new concept to terminology of domestic public law and improve administrative procedure, but will also lead to better social welfare of the citizens.

Power is the ability of a political player to use resources and facilities to influence international events in its own benefit. States need to adopt policies and implement plans to increase their national powers in order to survive and to protect security and welfare of their citizens and head off foreign threats. New conditions of the international system have cleared the way for new players within official international structures. States, therefore, take advantage of new means and ways to meet their national interests, the most important of which is the use of “soft power.” Due to its sensitive strategic and geopolitical position, the Islamic Republic of Iran has to bolster its soft power in addition to strengthening various aspects of its hard power (military and economic). Iran can make the most of its soft power capacities to bolster its national power only when she would formulate a suitable strategy and approach to presenting values she regards important in such a way that allows optimal generation of power domestically and internationally. The present study attempts, through a descriptive – analytical approach, to identify factors and components of soft power and to review their position in Iran’s soft power. Findings indicate that the overall effect of soft power components of Iran on the country’s national power is positive. Iran, however, has not been able to take suitable advantage of transnational components which positively affect the country’s soft power.

Although economic development and gaining the top rank in the region in economic, scientific and technological areas has been set as a goal of Iran’s 20-Year Vision Plan, the country has yet to come up with an indigenous development model befitting from its historical, geographical and cultural requirements. Therefore, the main questions in this study include: “What are the main characteristics of an optimal development model for the Islamic Republic of Iran?” “What are the main principles, dimensions and goals of purported economic development?” “In what ways such an optimal development can be achieved?” “Given the religious nature of the Islamic Republic of Iran, what is the position of ethics and culture in the optimal development model of the country?” To answer these questions and formulate a model for the Iranian – Islamic development, necessary information was first gathered through library method and analyzed, using a descriptive approach. Then, characteristics of an ideal society as described by the Constitution and features of a developed society as envisaged by the 20-Year Vision Plan were compared with development theories using an analytical method. Finally, suitable development strategies were deduced through analysis of internal and external environments and review of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats using SWOT analysis. To determine the position of ethics and culture in the desirable development model, the content of the available relevant documents were analyzed. Reliability and validity of research findings and study results have been tested using Delphi method. Eventually, a model for Iranian – Islamic development has been offered on the basis of study results which includes three strategies, four packages consisting of 15 executive measures (as independent variables), 17 ad-hoc results, five outcomes of ad-hoc results, seven sectoral goals (as dependent variables) and six development dimensions along with final goals of development.

In the literature of development economics, institutions are regarded as necessary grounds in the absence of which, economic growth and development will not take place fully. Laws and regulations are among institutions which play an important role in setting the direction of economic activities and labor law is a prominent instance of those laws in Iran. This law was amended in 1990 to provide more support for workers in comparison to its predecessor, but also imposed more liabilities on employers. This paper reviews impact of this measure on Iran’s industrial sector. Theoretical arguments have pointed to various, and sometimes contradictory, effects of the amendment. The findings of this study, which has taken advantage of combined data related to workshops with 50 workers in the period between 1988 and 2002, show that changes in Iran’s labor law have helped to increase the share of the country’s industries in the national economy and have facilitated industrial development in Iran.

Today and in most countries, governments are not able to provide universities with needed fund and facilities as a result of the growing number of universities and their students. Therefore, to achieve their goals, universities look for different ways of funding their programs without diverting from their main path of producing science and knowledge. Privatization is, thus, regarded as a policy for development of the higher education and ensuring financial independence of universities which can have positive and negative effects. The goal of this study is to identify the most important consequences of privatization of state-run universities in Iran. Following a theoretical discussion, two basic questions are posed and answered: 1) What are the most important consequences of the privatization of the higher education in Iran? and 2) What can be done to eliminate or reduce negative impacts of privatization? Research findings show that experts consider higher economic pressure on lower classes and emergence of class-oriented higher education in favor of the upper classes, increased independence of universities and higher flexibility of their managements, as well as promotion of the scientific status of the higher education are the most important consequences of privatization in this sector.

Trust is foundation of most everyday interactions in human societies both with regard to inter-personal communications and in social communications among groups. Trust in government and state-run organizations has decreased in many societies due to various factors including self-alienation, lack of social capital, presence of critical media or low level of accountability in public institutions and organizations. Studies show that some strategic and environmental factors, including economic factors, probably strengthen or weaken this state or affect it in other ways. This paper will briefly discuss the theoretical fundamentals of political trust before focusing on the impact of economic factor and its various components on the fluctuation of political trust. Research findings prove that economic factors and variables more or less affect the level of political trust in a society. They also indicate that economic stability, the status of important economic indices, and financial (economic) corruption have the highest impact on the political trust.