ژئوپلیتیک

From the end of 2019, the world has faced with instability resulted from Corona Virus (COVID-19) pandemic (WTO. (1),2020); a fatal and destructive virus which can have many lessons for the vulnerable world. The virus has spread to the entire world and has affected all of the states of the world which have affected by complicated and interwoven economic, social and spatial actions. The twenty-first century world is under threat by one of the smallest microscopic families. One of the hypotheses is that because natural order requirements are neglected, the nature has given the clearest answer and reaction and it will continue, if the destruction continues (Andrawes,2020). It is obvious that COVID-19 is not the first and the last one from pandemic diseases in human live, but it is a part of historical process of pandemic diseases and spreadable to the entire world that some other cases will be emerged in the future. So, based on such experiences, WHO, national and local states, civil organizations and citizens should design appropriate and synergic reactionary patterns to confront with them and execute the designs with previous preparations. The world mutation of the virus is started from a living organism (bat, pangolins or any other creature) in micro space, namely from a local market in Wuhan City (Hui and others,2020:265-266). But, the pattern of virus transmission was in a way that spread to world, rapidly and became a global epidemic and pandemic (Roumina,2020). Local origin, weakness of science, transmission rate, geographic spread pattern, global epidemic, different and doubtful reactions by the states and its destructive and multi-faceted effects can be an experience for the states, citizens and common reactions of the world society to similar threats in the future.    In global scale, the pattern of virus spread is pandemic and has spread to all of the states (WHO,2020). Even the states that have had high level of control power, they have been only able to delay its spread to inside of their territory and have not been made free from economic consequences and global fear from Coronavirus. Today, economic, social and spatial actions in the world are affected by Coronavirus monster. The chain of global production, distribution and consumption is extracted from normal cycle, at least for short term (Nguyen,2020). Because of the decrease in the global production and transportation activities, oil consumption has reached to its lowest rate and its price was negative. Many economic, social, cultural, scientific and administrative activities like business, transportation, trade, education, religious rituals, and tourism etc. activities have been decreased. Decreasing process of global economic growth and falling stock exchange in developed states are emanated from Coronavirus pandemic in the world (The Economic Times,2020). Networked economy and economic interdependence in the world from one hand, and huge effects of this phenomenon on the industrialized developed states are among the issue which will affect the global economy for long time. It seems that heavy shadow of the pattern of global distribution of China’s economic productions is in direct connection with Coronavirus fast spread in the other regions of the world. If this was occurred in any other state in the world, it would not be spread with this speed, geographically/spatially. Spatial and time pattern of Coronavirus spread show China geopolitical power and influence in the other geographic spaces of the world. Although some states closed their political geographic borders to confront with the virus spread, but they were not successful in this domain and the virus spread to the world. Closing or non- systematic hasty controlling of the borders in local and national scales were the first strategy of the states in which only some states earned relative success (Worldometers Website, 2020). It seems that closing or controlling of the international and internal borders with cellular approach toward geographic space and time as human structure habitations to close or reduce spatial transactions to the extent of inevitable necessities is a geographical strategy which can control epidemic diseases and preserve human immunity and guarantee human health and human structures in micro and macro levels. But, unfortunately China as the geographic origin of Coronavirus epidemic (Shadi,2020), and then WHO and consequently national states ignored their political/geographic responsibility and also ignored to codify geopolitical strategy to confront with the virus and acted with delay and incompletely and caused spread of the virus in global scale and pandemic. They should accept the consequences of ignoring the mentioned strategy or postpone in taking appropriate measures to control Coronavirus and development of hygienic threats against micro and macro geographic spaces which act as habitations of human structures and human society totality. At least there is a one difference among the states in the domain of spatial/ geographic reactions towards Coronavirus crisis, and that is the fact that Coronavirus was emanated from Wuhan in central region of China, but China prevented the virus spread to the other spaces of China by taking the strategy of geographic isolation and cutting or decreasing in spatial relations and taking strict state policies (Financial Times,2020). But, some European States, the US and Iran had unsystematic, doubtful and postponed geographic reactions, and caused the virus spread from its origin to the other geographic spaces and caused to incontrollable geographic pollution.       This experience showed that it seems that coherent political systems with higher power of control, ignoring their political ideology, are successful in the domain of human health security than plural political systems and also weak systems. This experience can be starting point in ideological and attitude revolution in the citizens towards political thoughts and state paradigms in the world and can change the citizens’ perceptions and expectations toward the states’ structures and the criteria of legitimacy.                       The level of development and extensive relations with China shows that developed states and also the states which are more dependent in the network of China’s economy are more infected by the virus than developing states. These states have the more cases and deaths. It seems that there is a direct relation between the level of economic interdependence with China’s economy and increase in the cases of Coronavirus and its spread (Goldin,2020). This shows high level and multifaceted level of transactions and mutual interdependence between the states and China as the origin of COVID-19 which caused the virus spread to these geographic spaces and located the cycle of virus spread in the patterns of local and regional spatial actions of the other states. This process caused doubled spread of COVID-19 in geographic spaces of the other continents and global epidemic. The spread and epidemic of the virus in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Italy, Iran, the Middle East, France, Britain, Eastern and Western Europe countries, Russia, the US and Canada etc. that are among developed states or are in connection with China’s economy is explainable in the frame of interdependence model.  In international scale, the states which reduced, controlled or managed spatial transactions and relations with the origin state namely China were less damaged and some states such as Iran that ignored the threat and continue its spatial transactions with China were more damaged.  The infected countries are faced with different challenges in national scale, and their economies have gotten Corona arrangement, formally and informally. Allocation of huge financial resources to prevent, confrontation, supply of medical equipment and supply of medical expenses have put the economies under pressure. From the other hand, crisis in small, medium and large scale firms have caused decrease in national production and have challenged economic growth and development. In informal economic domain, dark economic boom in economic systems which have gaps, have shown their inefficiency in such a situation. This issue is more critical in the states which face with wide spread of the virus and have not had appropriate financial resources and reserves. However, the lost costs in developed states are more than in developing states and they have suffered more.    Medically, healthy human with immune and resistant immunity system are less vulnerable in confrontation with the virus (WHO (2),2020), likewise in national scale, flexible and powerful systems have more power to cross from the crisis and weak systems will be faced with big challenges emanating from Coronavirus crisis. The consequences of Coronavirus crisis may last for several decades in these systems.   Regarding the above mentioned debate, Coronavirus crisis is one of the least experienced geopolitical crises of last decades which spread to the world incredibly fast and have made vulnerable geographic, biological, economic and social security of the spaces and have shocked and crippled the world. No matter where or what it is originated from, its consequences is global. It has spread to the world in a little time, and infected millions of people, and decreased global economic growth in developed states and it may collapse or bankrupt the economies of the developing states. This dangerous enemy has no weaponry and no complicated equipment, but it is developed through persons and needs and human spatial, economic and social transactions and it is become the biggest challenges of the world in short time and has minimized bilateral and multilateral spatial transactions in all local, area, regional, national and global scales.     So, confront with Coronavirus crisis, COVID-19, and newfound and pandemic diseases requires new applied paradigm in human minds which regardless of enemy-making policies originating from power relations, makes cooperation among the states necessary in interdependent and interconnected world in regional and global scales. It is fact that none of the states, even if it is the most powerful state in the world such as the US, cannot confront with the Coronavirus crisis or similar crises per se. As Coronavirus crisis is global, the exit path also requires global thought based on geopolitical strategy.      The experience of this global crisis shows that the virus threat is not limited to one or several states, but its threat and spread in a state means the threat and spread to the all of states and human being and living on planet earth (WTO (3),2020). Also, control and confront with this threat goes beyond from a state power or regional political system such as the EU. For this reason, there is not an alternative than dependence on multilateral cooperation and participation of all of the states. This crisis can form a geopolitical cooperation pattern base on peace for newfound crises. Dimensions of geopolitical strategy to confront and control of the pandemic epidemics similar to Coronavirus in the world are as under:  1.preliminary and immediate responsiveness of Security Council and General Assembly of the UN as an institution of political management of global space in considering pandemic epidemics as threats to international security and then mobilization of the states and governments to control and confront with it by central role of WHO; 2.inherent responsiveness of WHO to manage operational project of controlling and confronting with epidemics at their preliminary stages and not to find moral suggestions and consultants sufficient; 3.creation of common perception and approach towards epidemics among all of the UN member states as a threat to national security for all of the nations and states; 4.take initiatives to international cooperation and creation of powerful mechanism to form rapid and effective inter-state cooperation to confront with epidemics in regional and global scales by WHO; 5.organizing of operational teams to international technical and consulting helps and supports to the state or states infected by epidemics; 6.duties division and obligations related to public responsiveness of the states to confront with epidemics and mobilization of international and non-infected states facilities to support infected states by WHO; 7.establish united spatial political management among international, regional, national, sub-national, local and residential levels in coordination with WHO and local states to organized, effective and targeted confront with the epidemics; 8.having perception of national security threat towards epidemics spread to internal space of the territory of the states and nation’s habitations by national states; 9.having cellulous approach towards spaces and places of human living in micro scale (family scale of resident, proffered); 10.establish technical, institutional and specialized systems to national monitor and alarm in relation with newfound epidemeis, even usual epidemics in the state; 11.rapid and effective responsiveness of national states to control and confront with microbial threats and preserve bio security of citizens and habitations against epidemics; 12.rapid activation of controlling function and possibly closing the borders and land, air and sea border gates and decrease or stop spatial/ geographic transactions in social, economic and cultural facets with abroad in particular with the infected states and geographic spaces;  13.structural and functional organizing and to give the power and authority to the national and local operating systems to confront with epidemics; 14.emergency isolation and strict control and decrease in geographic (spatial / place) transactions in interstate scales which are suspected to be infected; 15.exertion of hygienic controls to infected persons and isolation of their place from other citizens;  16.justifying citizens and civil institutions in relation with legal and moral responsiveness against other citizen's health and invitation to cooperate with the states and plans of control and confront with epidemics; 17.establish or organizing of sustainable bio-army institution against future biological threats to the state due to supply and guarantee hygienic, food, physical and psychological security of citizens and inner geographic places and spaces of the state; 18.establish united multi-level and multi-faceted management system with accrue duty division between national, province, local and residential levels in a situation of epidemics and pandemics in the state; 19.taking policies and compensatory actions by the central and local states to supply public social welfare services, biological immunity, hygienic and medical services, losing jobs, economic and financial supports etc. in pandemic period to the vulnerable and damaged citizens and paying the costs from national and public resources; 20.permanent monitoring of epidemic situation and simultaneously with starting process of spatial/ social contraction in the state, execution of gradual process of decrease in geographic/ social limitations in national and local levels by the central state and normalization of living situation of the citizens in the country and reaching at final stage of the crisis.

In recent decades, the role-playing of the media has paved the way for the emergence of a new discourse named popular geopolitics that has the potential to link public opinion to geographical policies. Researchers in the context of popular geopolitics seek to evaluate methods of representing geographical phenomena and geopolitical events in media such as cinema. The current study, given the significance of The Concept of the Political as a kind of discourse in popular geopolitics and its impact on public opinion, seeks to choose the Middle East geopolitical region as the subject of the Hollywood cinema representation to examine the structures that try to guide public opinion and increase its power in the region with the help of The Political tools such as political romanticism and political theology. In this context, selected works of cinema made during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama between 2000 and 2015 have been selected for this analysis.

Due to geographic importance, India, China and European states are the largest potential natural gas markets of Iran. Iran natural gas and gas condensate production reached to 6.5 million barrels until February 2019. This gas will be received by Europe, finally. Europe depends on gas import from Russia, a matter that concerns gas importing states. Europe security strategy is focused on decrease in the level of dependence on Russia which is emphasized by Europe security perspectives. The research is intended to investigate these issues: what is Europe strategy to provide its energy security? And how do Iran’s gas resources affect Iran and Europe relations? The research hypothesis is that Europe is intended to develop its relation with Iran in order to decrease in Europe energy dependence on Russia. The research is based on descriptive-analytic method and also it is applied in terms of its goal. The research results show that Iran is the only state that can end Russia dominance on Europe energy supply, and European states can reconsider Iran’s role to promote Europe energy security and to decrease in the EU dependence on Russia.

Human life is tied with space through spatial emotions and the sense of place. Although existence of spatial emotions plays a vital role in the creation of space and in some ways reflects the presence, tale, culture, and feeling in the place and space and in this way assists man in there, in some situations this issue can lead to some challenges which are rooted in discriminative approaches that divide humanity into "us" against "others". In the critical human geography and critical geopolitics, scholars mentioned numerous factors which are influential in this dividing. One of the main factors which plays a significant role in this process is "geographical imagination" which obtains semi-logical reasons for a group of individuals and some states and powers to exclude other social, political, and ethical groups from "us". This subject can influence people and encourage them to ascribe wrong facts to individuals who are categorized as "others" and misattribute their spaces and places as dangerous locations. This spatial approach, consequently can result in labeling some spaces as "spaces of fear" and through this generates a wide range of social, economical, political and spatial problems and restrictions for individuals who are considered as "others or them".

Humanitarian intervention is a controversial issue in international relations and it is imperative for policy makers to understand its nature and complexities. This article seeks to explain France’s humanitarian actions during the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and how they were used to protect its strategic interests in Africa and Rwanda. Retrospectively analyzing the actions of France during the Rwandan genocide would provide invaluable insights on how powerful states advance their selfish national interests under the guise of humanitarianism. France’s military intervention in Rwanda represented the attempt to weave its strategic interests with its duty under international law to respond in cases of genocide and serious violations of human rights. The descriptive analysis method is used to build the arguments of this article and the conclusion reveals that France’s actions of leading the humanitarian intervention during the Rwandan genocide were not manifestations of a benevolent foreign policy but the pursuit of its selfish goals.

Tourist destinations are selected by tourists based on various factors. One of the most important factors is tourist destination security. The study aims to investigate the role of security in the development of rural tourism. The methodology is descriptive-analytical. The statistical population includes 194 tourists from eight villages of Torqabeh and Shandiz County, which selected through the Cochran formula. A survey containing Likert- type scales were used for data collection. The reliability of the questionnaire was measured through Cronbach Alpha, which is acceptable. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and Pearson Correlation test, One Sample T-test and Linear Regression, and VIKOR model. The results indicate that the security variable has a strong direct relationship with the tourism development variable (Coefficient = 0.713). In other words, security positively influences rural tourism development. In addition, the results of VIKOR model reveals that there is a different level of security for tourists in 8 tourist villages of the region; Jaghargh, Kang, and Abardeh villages are in good condition, but Noqondar, Anbaran, and Zoshk villages are at lower level in terms of tourism security and Zoshk village is at the lowest level in terms of tourism security that for the development of tourism in these villages should be considered by the authorities. 

The theory of the Buzan’s regional security complex is one of the most important theories of regional system analysis. But the theory has some shortcomings in the analysis of regional systems such as the Middle East. This article seeks to illustrate and reform those shortcomings with a fundamental theoretical and explanatory approach. This can also provide common variables for scrutinizing the regions all over the world.  In this way, it is argued that it is need and necessary adding one more variable called "problematic" to the regional security complex theory. Also It is argued that, due to the specific characteristics of each region, it is necessary to consider the other particular variables of each region. Since this study focuses on the regional system of the Middle East as a case, it is also necessary to examine two other variables, the "individual" and the "structure of the international system".

The current article aims at studying the elements of continuity and change in Iran’s foreign policy toward the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis during Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Hassan Rouhani’s administrations. It tries to answer the question as to which factors have contributed to continuity and change in Iran's foreign policy toward the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis between 1997 and 2018? The article shows that although the principles of Iran’s foreign policy toward the South Caucasus and the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis have not changed during this period, the changing role of the external powers – Russia and the West – as well as different foreign policy priorities defined by the three administrations, have caused changes in Iran's approach to this issue. An inductive approach and a qualitative research method has been used in this article. Official documents, news and research articles have been used as the main sources of data in this article.

This study focuses on the democratization in Iran from 1909 to 2013. I show that Iranian society experienced four waves of democratization. I argue that although Iran has experienced long-run processes of democratic change, the country has not yet been able to establish a democratic system. Meanwhile, these long-run processes of democratic change have led to long-lasting institutional change, realizing some of the minimum criteria of the transition process, including periodic elections. I set out a theory by which democratization increases parallel to the degree of socio-economic development. Importantly, I argue that successful democratization hinges on political elites strategically choosing to refrain from repression. The strategic choices made by the élites determine the main process of the transition stage. I use a novel dataset collected from 33 parliamentary and 11 presidential elections. Using multiple linear regression model, I find that socio-economic development and elite agency explain 0.42 percent of the variation in electoral participation and 0.62 percent of the variation in electoral competition. When elites decide to repress oppositional forces, the democratic transition index decreases by an average of 13.93 units.

Since the 18th century, the western world has gone through political and economic alterations. Gold has been of economic importance over thousands of years in several civilisations. It gained international economic significance during the 19th century, when several countries officially adopted the Gold Standard. With the world becoming more intertwined, gold has found new importance for economies and investors alike. It has been a safe haven during a time of economic crisis which has been reflected on its price. This paper examines the development of gold in a changing global, political and economic environment. For investors it has become a safe haven during the crisis, but how reliable is gold? How far can investors predict gold’s worth in times of crisis and what kind of crises drives gold? The interplay of global players, governments, their policies, currency strategies and large private investors have complicated the predictability of the gold price. Hence, the present study is aimed to analyze the reliability of gold when countries are headed into crises as well as economic and political impacts on the gold price, using content and data analysis method based on library resources<strong>.</strong>

It is argued in this paper that the non-formation or non-growth of democracy in the Middle East is related to geopolitical centrality. The network analysis of Iran and Saudi Arabia in terms of geopolitical centrality indicates that the high geopolitical centrality of these two countries in the existing geopolitical sub-networks at this region is one of the important barriers against realization and promotion of democracy. In Iran before 1979 Revolution, its high centrality under geopolitical sub-networks of security and the west and also after the 1979 Revolution, its high centrality in several ideological sub-networks have made slower Liberal democratic growth in this region.in contrast In Saudi Arabia, high centrality of this country since 1980s   in ideological sub-networks and its role in geopolitical sub-networks of  west and security  on three past decades has hindered formation of Liberal democracy in this country..

One of the issues discussed in geopolitics is the role of international straits (canals); as such, it is of great importance to investigate their geopolitical and strategic role. It is because the straits are the places of distribution of power, where the competition of governments is very evident in using the potential of geographic space to achieve greater benefits and ultimately to gain power in international relations. Even in some cases, countries not located around the straits enter many ways in order not to lag behind other countries. That is to say, there is a kind of conflict and competition between countries over the use of straits, especially the countries bordering the strait. Therefore, the strategic straits play a decisive role in the power of nations and their fate and also in the foreign policy of the coastal states along with the balance of regional and global power, as a result, their study is essential for political geographers and geopoliticians. One of the most important straits in the world is the Malacca Strait whose investigation strategically and geographically provides important points. Using descriptive-analytical method and also based on statistics and figures for plotting diagrams in this paper, it has been tried to study the role, geopolitical features, and importance of Malacca Strait for coastal states and conditions as well as factors causing challenges and crises for the strategic role of the strait. According to the results, as one of the major international straits, the Malacca Strait has strategic potentials in the regional and global arena and coastal governments need to rely on targeted and strategic plans to combat the challenging processes in this strait<strong>.</strong>

What broke out as the Arab Spring in Tunisia in 2010 stroke Egypt and shed its light on the Middle East, including Syria. During the first few days of demonstrations in Syria, the spring turned into a bloody fall and a full-scale civil war. Political-security crises and economic and social problems that had dominated the country during Assad's family rule left the state in deep defeat. Meanwhile, the arena of war turned into the scene of conflict between different political forces and their regional and international supporters, caused Syria to encounter immense foreign intervention. In this regard, this article attempts to figure out the answer to this question, "What are the causes for the Syrian state of failing during 2010-19?" The authors hypothesize that "the state in Syria has failed since the beginning of the protests due to persistent social, economic and political-security crises that led to the militarization of the country by the opposition and insurgent groups." The findings also indicate that the Syrian state faced historical crises after 2010 in economic imbalance and decline, demographic and environmental pressures, political-administrative corruption, and weak public services, which deepened after 2011, and it spread to other areas such as ethnic-religious violence.

Strategic policy is tantamount to a method for foreign policy analysis. The foreign and strategic policies of Iran have been in line with multilateral cooperation in regional crises. The key indicators of Iran’s policy comprise mechanisms of identity and revolutionary actions in international and regional relations. Iran’s strategic policy has generally been formed on the pillars of multilateral cooperation with regional countries and in line with the unity of the Muslim world. Iran has accepted many of the rules of the Westphalian system, and has therefore based its strategic policy orientation on the doctrine of adaptability to the world order. Iran’s policy of managing regional crises has generally been based on cultural tenets, historical experiences and structural consequences. Each of the latter components has played a crucial role in Iran’s Westphalian order paradigm for protecting the territories of other countries. The experiences gained by Iran during the Holy Defense [Iran-Iraq War] and its acceptance of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 are indicative of the fact that Iran has employed pragmatic mechanisms with regard to regional conservative countries. Iran’s nuclear diplomacy can be regarded as another sign of its structural action which aims to deter threats and manage crises. The acceptance of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and Iran’s efforts toward peacemaking in the regional order of the Persian Gulf and Middle East can be considered as actions taken by Iran toward confronting terrorist groups and organizing regional order under such circumstances as violence, crises and chaos.

Although the goal of all regional organizations is to strengthen cooperation between member states, in some cases there are apparent or hidden rivalries in minor or major levels, which sometimes leads to stagnation and inefficiency of the regional organization and hinders effective cooperation. The need for cooperation in South West Asia to benefit all developing countries in the region became the main driver for the foundation of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) in 1985. This study aimed to identify the areas of rivalries among the member states of this organization resulting lack of cooperation and success, from a political geography and geopolitics point of view. Contexts of rivalries classified into four political, economic, cultural, and geopolitical factors containing eighteen sub-variables. The results showed geopolitical, political, cultural factors, and economic factors respectively have a positive and significant effect on rivalries in ECO