World Sociopolitical Studies

Considering Russia’s rich and vast oil resources, this country is one of the world’s greatest producers and exporters of this nonrenewable energy resource, and like other petrostates, receives a major part of its national income in this way. The dependence of Russia’s budget on oil has raised the significance of world oil price fluctuations for this country. Since 1970s, the global oil market has experienced numerous shocks, which have in turn, had significant effects on Russia’s economy. Therefore, the theoretical study of oil shocks and their historical impact on Russia’s economy, as well as the policies adopted by this country to reduce the effects of those shocks, is considered a practical issue for Iran’s oil-based economy. The outcomes of this research indicate the positive impact of historical oil shocks on Russia’s economic growth. The establishment of a stabilization fund in 2004 and its development into the Reserve Fund and the National Welfare Fund in 2010 are considered to be this country’s most important policy in reaction to oil price shocks.

Kyoto is a miniature of Japan; through centuries of experience and persistence, it has maintained the symbols of the country’s civil and cultural identity. The city has demonstrated a collection of Japan’s noble identity and characteristics through its material and spiritual heritage. Kyoto’s rich history and its position have gathered a collection of religion-based works, artistic innovations, and cultural heritage and have passed them through to the modern world. Kyoto is the symbol of an effort for the persistence of the city’s identity as well as the, coexistence of the modern and native characteristics within itself which indicates the glocal logic of the city. The question which is raised here is: what are the cultural and identity-related elements of Kyoto which have come together in a glocal structure and how have they been formed as such/in this way? Has Kyotoreally been successful in glocalizing itself in a balanced collection of civil, cultural, and identity-based characteristics and advance in the process? Considering the important role Kyoto plays in reflecting Japan’s history and culture, and the position it holds as the country’s cultural and historical heart, this paper has reviewed the city’s experience as Japan’s cultural capital and has aimed to analyze and specify Kyoto’s persistent and identity-making characteristics in a glocal frame. In the end, the study will form a schema of the solidarity and dynamism of the analyzed elements based on Japan’s identity and culture.

Relying on its partisan principles and values, the Ba’athist regime– the period when Saddam Hussein was in charge in Iraq– sought a powerful government. Not respecting and believing in ethnical and sectarian differences and seeking the realization of national unity, Saddam tried to regulate security policies in a way in which he could assimilate the differing Iraqi society, using the policies of carrot and stick. This project was consisted of two fundamental pillars: (1) positive or carrot assimilation policies; and (2) negative or stick assimilation policies. This article discusses the way in which Saddam’s unifying principles were implemented in Iraq during the Ba’athist regime. The research method of the article is qualitative and the data are gathered from various documents and interviews with former and current Iraqi government officials. The questions this paper seeks to answer are: (1) What were the patterns of policymaking in Iraq’s national security during the period of the Ba’ath Party’s rule? and, (2) Did those patterns help Iraq’s national unity and solidarity? The article concludes that because of the specific characteristics of these policies, and considering the sociological, cultural, and historical principles of Iraq, assimilation policies during the Ba’ath Party’s rule caused numerous ethnical and sectarian cracks and consequently gave birth to discordant and disharmonious groups in the society.

Although the 2011 uprisings in Egypt led to the fall of Hosni Mubarak, they have not yet been able to change the nature of the country’s political system. A year after the country’s first non-military president took office, Egypt’s political situation became more or less similar to the way it had been before 2011. The structure of the relationship between the state and the society in Egypt, highly affected by vast military influence, could be explained through Guillermo O'Donnell’s model of “Bureaucratic Authoritarianism”. The Islamists’ weakness in establishing a powerful government granted a proper excuse for the military to obtain direct rule over the country through a modern 21st-century coup d’état. The basis for legitimizing this move, in addition to the Islamists’ weakness, was the claim that the 2011 coup d’état had the same public support as the 1952 coup d’état. Consequently, the military enacted legal mechanisms and introduced a presidential candidate who ultimately won the elections, giving back the military its previous position. It seems that the military authoritarian government in Egypt would enjoy relative legitimacy by focusing on providing economic and political stability, while paving the way for preserving its own long-term politico-economic interests. Therefore, it is likely that if the status quo– which relies upon widespread repression of the Islamists and the weakness and passivity of the liberal movements– is maintained, the authoritarian military rule over Egypt will continue.

The emergence of nuclear weapons as a new actor in international relations has introduced a new area in the international security arena. Since the appearance of these weapons, there have been increasing efforts to limit and destroy them in order to achieve global peace in the framework of disarmament and centered around the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Along with the emergence of the non-proliferation system and the current trend, achieving nuclear disarmament has turned into an international demand, especially for the Non-Aligned Movement member states. The present study seeks to analyze the influence of the Non-Aligned Movement on disarmament in the framework of the mentioned Treaty. To this end, and based on the Neoliberal Institutionalism theory, this article studies the Non-Aligned Movement’s stance toward nuclear disarmament in the framework of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Review Conferences of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The study is written according to the descriptive-analytical method. The findings suggest that despite its inefficient influence prior to the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Non-Aligned Movement, as a major actor in international peace and security, has gained an influential position in the negotiations about the formation of the trends related to nuclear disarmament in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Far-right parties have been increasingly spreading throughout Europe since 1980s; they have attracted the attention of many voters, especially the youth and the workers by campaigning against immigration and multiculturalism. Through an anti-establishment approach, these parties have become mainly mistrustful of the mainstream politics articulating themselves as the true voice of the people and the only alternative to the status quo; the far-right parties have been able to distance themselve from traditional fascism and adopt a populist approach and have become a rising forcein many European countries. The current paper aims to explore the status of far-right parties in European countries; it studies both the electoral victory of this movement and its consequences, and compares the condition of these parties across the European countries. Finally, the social status of far-right parties will be examined together with demographic variables of age, gender, social class and education.