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The significance of having an alliance was defined in the Great War when weak European and strong countries decided to ally to fight the mighty power of the Central Powers. Afterward, fragile countries decided to join strong alliances to overcome threats from their neighbors. The Second World War was another example of being allied with strong countries to cope with threats from Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Japanese Empire. During the Winter War and Russia-Ukraine War, Finland, and Ukraine, respectively, resemble weak countries with limited military and economic capabilities taking on a dominant and belligerent force. Neorealism is one of the structural theories in International Relations, which states that states intend and follow the balance of power to ensure their security. Neorealism posits that security organizations and alliances are vital tools in the pursuit of balancing threats and ensuring national security. This research aims to highlight the importance of alliances with Russia's neighbors to avoid future conflicts with Russia. The main question of this research is why Russia's neighbors need to form or join alliances to hedge against Russia's aggression and assist member states in reducing the large amount of budget spent on military expenses. This research argues that Finland's position in 1939 and Ukraine's in 2022 are the consequence of self-reliance under an anarchic system without having an alliance and leading to final defeat or territory cession. This paper argues alliances can secure European countries and act as a shield from Russia's threats. This research will employ the explanatory method as its research method.

This article is an effort based on critical discourse analysis and is carried out by the descriptive-analytical method. The results show that The Reformists and Principlist do not have the same attitude to the political participation. Based on the Guardianship of the Islam Jurist in the field of political principles, the Principlist believe in appointment and consider the legitimacy from top to bottom. They consider the voting of people is a confirmation to them. They also believe that approbatory supervision is necessary and try to develop Islamism rather than republic. On the other hand, the Reformist consider the political participation form bottom to top and they believe that it results in political development. They believe that the government should be formed based on people’s opinion and compared to Principlist, they believe less to approbatory supervision. They emphasize on the importance of republic. In order to determine their own destiny, they try to take the advantage of political participations including voting in elections, establishing societies and organizations, media activities, guild activities, etc. Anyway, the researches show that different patterns can be considered in the field of competition and political participation in Iran.in iran in iran in iran in iran in iran