RAHBORD
Year:2012 | Volume:21 | Issue:62|Papers Count:11

The idea of establishing a Weapons of Mass Destruction or Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in the Middle East is not new; it dates back to 1970s. However, the security landscape of the Middle East today has compelled most analysts to look at the idea and the concept anew. This paper briefly explains the legal framework of general and complete nuclear disarmament, historical obstacles, and new hopes inspired by the new US president's approach to disarmament, and the pioneer role that the United States and Russia should play for the elimination of nuclear weapons. The paper suggests that establishment of a nuclear weapon free zone is not only a constructive step in promoting nonproliferation, but also a measure, which if taken collectively, will create such political conditions in the world as a result of which nuclear-weapon states will find the idea of a world free from nuclear weapons plausible.

International concerns about proliferation of nuclear weapons following the Cold War and possible smuggling of nuclear material as well as enrichment and reprocessing technologies by illegal groups, have given rise to efforts to invoke effective international measures. Meanwhile, nuclear weapon states with dominant political, military and economic power play a more important role in this respect to shape the international norms and regulations. While maintaining their nuclear monopolies, such states have decided to promote establishment of a world bank of nuclear fuel in order to ensure international supply of nuclear fuel to countries without a nuclear fuel cycle. Endeavors and lobbying by nuclear states to discourage development of local nuclear capabilities by other countries through offering various alternatives finally prompted International Atomic Energy Agency to give the green light for the establishment of the nuclear fuel bank in 2010. The present paper discusses background of the international nuclear fuel bank while focusing on the existing barriers and future outlooks.

The United States foreign policy and strategy in the Iraqi Kurdistan has been a constant concern for Iraq's neighboring countries, including Iran, Turkey and Syria. Assessment of the US Foreign policy in the strategic region of Iraqi Kurdistan becomes more important in view of the impact of those policies and resultant developments in Kurdish areas on Iran, Turkey and Syria. The main goal of this paper is to conduct a strategic research based on factors determining US foreign policy in northern Iraq from 2003 to 2011 (including subject of decisions, officials involved, the process and implementation of decisions, and their results) and review the impact of those policies on the national security of Iran. Using an analytical-descriptive method, this study will try to answer the following questions. What strategic goal is pursued by US foreign policy in the Iraqi Kurdistan? What are positive or negative consequences of those policies on the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran? The findings show that the US foreign policy in Iraqi Kurdistan is vacillating between "minimal maximums" and "maximal minimums" as well as between rational and satisfactory decision-making models. This foreign policy does not necessarily end in the adoption of a suitable strategy accompanied with suitable policies and tactics and is full of ambiguities and contradictions. The contradictions result from complex system of decision-making in the United States and adoption of domestic, regional and international approaches in the heterogeneous political environment of Iraq. Finally, these strategies have had minimal effects on the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This paper aims to analyze the relationship between US President Barack Obama's New Year messages to Iranians and his "change" motto and also to discuss the evolution of Obama's discourse on Iran and the approach he has chosen to resolving the differences. Therefore, discourse analysis has been used to study Obama's New Year messages to Iran. Analysis of his messages proves that like previous presidents of the United States, Obama's discourse aims to maintain and strengthen the United States hegemonic power. In fact, Obama's "change" only applies to methods that he uses to achieve those goals. Therefore, Obama's discourse is an instance of Foucault's interpretation of power relations which he believes are "purposive and without an actor," and his discourse is actually shaped by objective conditions. Since Obama has the upper hand because of his discourse, he can use linguistic means to establish his dominant position. By banking on that dominant position, he can align the public opinion with his effort to take advantage of such means as control, pressure, and coercion.

The Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979, like all other phenomena, had various impacts on its immediate neighborhood. The powerful discourse of the revolution has increased importance of the study of its influences beyond the borders of the Islamic Republic. Since the second half of the 20th century, the Islamic world has been witnessing an upsurge in Islamist movements and tendencies, which seek to revive Islam in various social areas. After victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, such movements have been greatly influenced by the Islamic uprising of the Iranian nation, which is manifested in the Islamic Revolution and the political system arising from it. That influence has been seen again in the wave of the Islamic Awakening in the early months of the second decade of the new century. As a result, the main ideas embedded in the general discourse of the Islamic Revolution can now be seen among the dominant concepts which characterize various Islamist movements. This situation has caused the Islamic Revolution to emerge as new enemy of the West following demise of Communism, which has given birth to a rival discourse as counterweight to the liberal democracy; a discourse whose aftereffects can be seen in the form of the Islamic Awakening in regional Arab countries.

Ongoing developments in the Middle East and North Africa, especially in the Persian Gulf, are subject of international debates. The situation in a number of regional countries has become unstable and chaotic, which has had certain consequences at regional and international levels. These profound developments, whose various dimensions grow every day, are taking place in a region of high importance to international politics, and they will have significant short-and long-term effects on international system. The Islamic Republic of Iran as one of the major powers in this region can both affect and be affected more than other countries by unrest in the neighboring states (including Bahrain). During the past century, especially following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Iran has been trying to boost its regional role and status. Therefore, it has regularly defended regional arrangements which would guarantee the status and role that the Islamic Republic of Iran deserves. To what extent these developments may shape a new order which may define the status of each regional player in a new way? The main question of this study is what effect, from the viewpoint of Iran, can the crisis in Bahrain have on the security of the Persian Gulf and regional status of Iran? The most important presumption is that such crises (like the fall of the Baathist regime in Iraq and the crisis in Bahrain) which affect Arab countries that are allies of the West, will change the power of the existing regional players in the Persian Gulf, including Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and increase the regional clout of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Recent developments and popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa and the approach taken by international community to support or not to support civilians against irresponsible and violent behavior of their rulers have led to renewed attention to humanitarian intervention according to doctrine of "responsibility to protect." The question is why, in view of similarities between developments in Libya and other regional countries like Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria, the international community is only protecting civilians in Libya and no such approach is seen toward other countries?Analysts believe the doctrine of responsibility to protect is the main ground for international community's intervention in Libya. This doctrine has been applied in past years to prevent repetition of deadly conflicts and violation of basic human rights as those which took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Congo, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Uganda. At least parts of the international community have recognized this doctrine to constitute a norm of international law. The present paper briefly discusses this doctrine in the light of recent regional and international trends and concludes that the doctrine of "Responsibility to Protect" is gradually rising as a concept of customary international law.

Iran is currently in transition to industrialization. Therefore, if careful attention is not paid to strategic environmental effects of large-scale plans and national policies, the country will be facing great environmental problems in not-so-a distant future which will prove hard to resolve. Strategic environmental assessment is an acceptable method to achieve sustainable developmental goals by frequent and regular assessment of environmental impact of various developmental policies, plans and projects. This assessment can be also used as an important means of planning by policymakers through which they will be able to identify potential environmental impact of developmental and civil projects and find logical options to eliminate or reduce them.Therefore, the importance of complying with rules and regulations requiring strategic environmental assessment cannot be over emphasized. It helps to prevent untoward consequences of development.The present paper introduces the principles of strategic environmental assessment and then explains its applications and advantages as well as the existing obstacles and limitations. Finally, it draws some mechanisms to bolster scientific, legal and executive foundations of strategic environmental assessment in Iran.

Progress means a movement from the existing situation to an overall desirable situation which covers all social dimensions of human life as a result of which the society does away with material and spiritual poverty, social maladies, injustice and lack of freedom, absence of security and welfare, and absence of independence and national dignity. Any model for progress of a country can only last in a structured manner if it has an epistemological system. Understanding the underlying epistemological system for any model is essential to formulation of that model. Basic principles and key elements of Islamic-Iranian model for national progress of the Islamic Republic of Iran have been taken from epistemological system governing such basic strategic instruments as the Constitution, 20-Year Vision Plan, and general policies of the Islamic Republic. This study reviews these instruments in a bid to discover and present basic principles and key elements of this model through a data-based qualitative theorization method.

The present paper briefly introduces theoretical fundamentals of strategy formulation in organizations. It points out that realization of three stages of strategic management cycle is an effective factor for the success of strategy formulation. Using this approach, it identifies a comprehensive process for the strategy implementation in the state sector. It also uses a field study to explain the model used for the implementation of national strategies in the Executive Branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran, regarding it as a requisite stage in the realization of strategic management cycle. In terms of goals, the present study is an applied, developmental study, while in terms of methodology; it uses a descriptive method to explain subject matters of the study through survey. Then, it expounds relations among variables of the proposed model using co-variance correlation matrix analysis. General structure of the research model is based on the model of structural equations using score card simulation model in the state sector. Findings show that implementation of national strategies in the Executive Branch should take place in two stages. The first stage is preparation by the government, while the second stage deals with operations of executive bodies, which requires appropriate adjustments in the structure, human resources, internal processes, distribution of financial resources for implementation of the adopted strategies. In addition, the proposed model allows for analysis of relations among its variables, prediction of the effect of each variable, as well as for determination of the quality of their relation to national development variable.