احسان رسولی نژاد

Economic sanctions, involving trade restrictions imposed by one country or a group of countries against another, come in various forms, such as tariffs, trade barriers, and import/export restrictions. In recent times, Iran and Russia have become targets of diverse economic sanctions imposed by the Western Bloc. Given that both countries heavily rely on their energy sectors as the bedrock of their economies, this study focuses on assessing the impact of Western sanctions on Iran and Russia's energy industries. Employing the Futurology method (Scenario planning), the research examines the effects of Western sanctions on the energy sectors of Iran and Russia, and explores their respective responses to mitigate these adverse consequences. The findings highlight four potential scenarios for the future of the Iranian and Russian energy sectors, based on two megatrends of sanctions and geopolitical tensions. Among these scenarios, the "Ideal scenario" emerges as the most favorable outcome, while the "Austerity scenario" poses the greatest challenges. Despite the short-term efficacy of these strategies, the study underscores heightened long-term investment risks in both nations. Consequently, foreign investors' participation in the oil and gas sectors of Iran and Russia is expected to decline.

One of the most important issues in the world economy is the concept of energy security and the study of its various dimensions in different countries. It is of great importance for Russia as one of the largest oil and gas producing countries in Northern Asia and the world. This study seeks to measure various aspects of energy security in Russia using the factor analysis model. The results show a high degree of interdependence between the two variables of economic growth and energy intensity in Russia. The results of the EFA also show that the two factors, including the general factor and the investment science factor, can explain about 85% of the variance of the observed variables. Moreover, the results of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its impact on energy security demonstrate the need to separate the short-term effects of the conflict on energy security from the long-term effects. Russia suffers from the problem of energy stickiness due to its economic and political structure and will lag behind the West in the medium- and long-term renewable energy replacement program.

significance, as they have grappled with enduring economic and political sanctions imposed by Western powers. Over time, both Iran and Russia have confronted a series of sanctions targeting their economic and financial sectors. In response to the adverse effects of these sanctions, both nations have embraced a strategy of 'resistance.' Experts contend that financial and economic sanctions induce substantial shifts in a country's macroeconomic landscape, prompting the adoption of distinct policies and strategic orientations. Against this backdrop, this research undertakes a comprehensive examination and analysis of the discourses surrounding economic resistance and resilient economies in Iran and the Russian Federation, with a focus on elucidating their commonalities and disparities. The research methodology employed in this study is the SWOT analysis method. Findings reveal that both Iran and Russia, while contending with Western sanctions, have pursued the implementation of resilient economy and economic resistance strategies, respectively. Iran's resilient economy signifies a transition towards long-term economic resilience rooted in religious principles. Conversely, Russia's economic resistance constitutes a short-term response to sanctions driven by political considerations".

This paper aims to show the asymmetric effect of oil shocks on Iran’s economy. It uses nonlinear time series models to investigate the asymmetric effect of oil shocks on resource allocation in Iran’s economy. The results show that adverse oil shocks have been more persistent during the last decades and severely negatively affect resource allocation in Iran’s economy. Different oil shocks have different implications for importing and exporting countries, and the rigidity of state fiscal systems in exporting countries causes adverse oil shocks to be more persistent. The oil economy’s response to positive and negative oil shocks depends on the structure of the economy. The government budget and trade balance have significant implications for the effects of oil shocks on oil-exporting economies. The government budget is highly dependent on oil revenues, so in the case of adverse oil shocks, the pass-through exchange rate will cause high inflation because of foreign exchange shortage and overshoot in the exchange rate. 

This research seeks to answer the question “what factors affect Iranian people’s adaptation to the changes in their social welfare under the imposed sanctions?” To this end, a survey methodology based on two theories of Sanctions Acceptance Model (SAM) and Ulrich Beck’s theory of risk society is employed to analyze the opinions of 135 respondents who are experts in the fields of economic sciences, economic resistance, economic development, and sociology of development. The results reveal that government organizations and institutions play a major role in assisting people in their adaptation to the conditions resultant from the sanctions. In the next step, the context of the sanctions was addressed in relation to the characteristics of the imposed sanctions. These characteristics, namely the target of the sanctions, the duration of the sanctions, the depth of the impact of the sanctions, threat or imposition of sanctions, and the unilateral or multilateral nature of sanctions play a major role in Iranian people’s level of acceptance regarding the changes in their social welfare. Individuals are another important group whose mentalities and perceptions are affected by the imposed sanctions.

It is generally accepted that COVID-19 is one of the most serious challenges the countries have faced since the end of World War II. The coronavirus, as an external shock has reshaped economic structures and lowered integration among countries. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of COVID-19 on the globalization level of countries, which were classified into five Asian regions based on the United Nations geoscheme. To this end, an econometric method of estimation is employed based on the quarterly data pertaining to the study’s variables from 2010 to 2020. Results indicate that the pandemic has had a more severe negative impact on the globalization level of more developed countries in Asia, whereas it has had a smaller negative impact on less developed regions, such as those located in Central Asia. In this regard, Japan and China can be named as two economies in which the Coronavirus has had a greater negative impact on the level of globalization. It can be highlighted that the pandemic and its related consequences, such as protectionism (trade and capital de-liberalism) and travel restrictions are not considered as potential threats for all Asian countries. What constitutes a threat for various countries depends on the country’s economic nature, political stability, economic size, and globalization nature. Therefore, for globalization recovery, no unique pattern could be applied to all Asian countries, each having to determine useful practical policies based on its  economic mechanism and interactions with respect to both regional and global variables. 

Making an agreement between Iran and an integrated countries bloc like Shanghai Cooperation Organization or Eurasian Economic Union to boost energy trade is considered as an efficient factor to improve multilateralism and regionalism of Iranian economy. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 has had caused serious and unprecedented consequences on globalization and regionalization. This research seeks to find out the relationship between COVID19 and regional energy integration for two cases of South Asia and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). To estimate the coefficients of variables, the panel data framework based on quarterly data over 2010Q1-2020Q2 is employed. The major results reveal that the COVID19 pandemic is found to be a serious challenge for regional energy integration in these two unions, particularly the integration of larger economies which are more developed and have a higher level of trade liberalization are disturbed by this pandemic. A policy implication based on the conclusions is that Iran may try to make regional energy integration with its neighbors and trading partners. However, to reduce the long-run negative impacts of pandemic, Iran and its energy trade partners should make a plan to determine types and magnitudes of negative impacts of pandemic, regulating monetary and fiscal policies to encounter with the negative influences. To the best of author’s knowledge, despite some earlier researches, there is not any existing literature focusing on how the Corona affects the economic integration. Therefore, this paper tries to fill in this literature gap.

The challenge of environmental pollution and climate change have made countries to develop energy transition progress to move from non-renewable energy sources towards renewable ones. This paper seeks to consider energy transformation process and analyze its pattern in Iran by modeling through the ARDL bounding testing method over the period of 1993-2018. The empirical estimations depicted that in the long-run economic growth and inflation rate negatively impact on energy transformation of Iran, while increase in carbon dioxide emissions and appreciation of Iran’s national currency accelerate the energy transition process in Iran. Regarding the short-run relationship, the major results represented an evidence of positive impact of exchange rate on Iran’s energy transition process, while the other variables have negative coefficient. As a major concluding remark, for the case of Iran, the findings prove that the influential impacts of explanatory variables on energy transformation are stronger in long-run rather than in short-run. Therefore, the presence of efficient long-run energy planning is recommended.