Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs (IRFA)

This article seeks to identify and explain the impact of US foreign policy towards the Iraqi Kurdistan on the military security of the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially since 2003. The main question of this article is: What is the impact of US foreign policy towards the Iraqi Kurdistan on the military security dimension of the Islamic Republic of Iran? the research hypothesis is formulated as follows: the US foreign policy towards the Iraqi Kurdistan since 2003 has been influencing the military security of the Islamic Republic of Iran in structural and behavioral dimensions including: the formation of anti-Iranian armed groups and formation of regional coalitions. Stimulating the separatist tendencies of the Kurds in the northwest, especially the counter-revolutionary and dissident Kurds can be seen as behavioral part of the u.s presence effect in Iran`s securtty policy.

The British people vote to withdraw from the European Union (Brexit) in 23 June 2016 referendum is one of the most important events occurred in the European Union since its formation. Brexit can highly affect the future status of the EU in the international system and the relationship between the EU and other regions of the world. Withdrawal of the UK from European Union occurred after the agreement reached between Iran and E3+3 on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and at the time when Iran-EU relationship seemed to improve, so this departure can highly shape and affect Iran-EU relationship. The question this paper addresses is that how the Brexit would affect the relationship between the EU and Iran. To answer this question, the hypothesis proposed here is that the Brexit would improve the relationship between Islamic Republic of Iran and the European Union by decreasing the transatlantic weight and the US-oriented tendency in the EU. This article uses descriptive-analytical approach.

The relationship between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been a confrontational one in the past four decades and been influenced by the nature of the Islamic Revolution and its derived system. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States tried to expand its ideals and structure of the desired order by using the power components in international system as a hegemonic power. However, Iran generally considers the US hegemony as a special type of domination and given the nature of the Islamic Republic of Iran with a unique ideological discourse, the resistance against the domination hegemony is necessary and therefore counter-hegemonic strategies and policies have always been  Iranian policy priorities. This article aims to investigate the relationships between the two countries by using descriptive-analytical method in the framework of Neo-Gramscianism and in the hegemony power and counter-hegemony forms. The findings of the article show that in order to maintain its position of hegemony, the US has applied policies such as the coercive diplomacy, the soft warfare, de-legitimization of Iran and legitimization of the use of pressure through the international institutions against the country. In response Iran has tried to confront the US hegemonic position by adopting self-reliance policies, by making alliances and coalitions as well as pursuing independent political discourse in international system.

The religious nationalism in Neo-Taliban era implies a process of distancing from tribal legitimacy toward a more nationalistic narration. The research aims to understand the Religious nationalism in the approach of Neo- Taliban toward state-building and the peace process. In this regard, the social theory of Ibn Khaldun is employed to measure the process, the logic and the consequences of the birth of its religious nationalism. It becomes clear that the group spiced its religious narration with nationalist changes to win more social support and legitimacy by overcoming ethnonationalism and emphasizing on nationalistic notions that ultimately weakened its traditional legitimacy.

Militarization is perceived as the intentions of the military to intervene and overcome civilian procedures. The tendency for militarism generates from the military’s ambition to be dominant over procedures not commonly perceived as military. It is described as an effort “to make people accept and love war, and see it as ‘normal’” (Lutz, 2009a, in Bickford, 2015) and is usually associated with high military expenditures. On the other hand, the emergence of cyberspace has opened new capacities and paradigmatic frameworks for conceptualization of sociopolitical phenomena. The present article is concerned with the US use of Stuxnet against Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2010. While being a cyber-tool in the US hostile foreign policy against Iran, the attack is discussed in the related literature as an act of cyber-war. This article argues that besides marking a cyber-tool in the US foreign policy against Iran, the attack was part of a long term militarization process in the US cyber strategy. Relying on dual-spacization’s assumptions of physical-virtual reality and using theory-testing process-tracing as the research method, this article concludes that the militarization process whereby Stuxnet was used as an alternative to kinetic attack on Iran, dual-spacized the nature of war.

Iraq, as Iran's western neighbor, has the appropriate and potential capacity for regional interaction and cooperation. Accordingly, intelligent and planned interaction with this country can be important for the production of wealth, power and national security of Iran. Being aware of this, regional powers are also investing in Iraq ostensibly to rebuild the country, but in practice with political motives, and this could pose a threat to Iran. The present study seeks to answer the main question: What effect does the investment of regional powers in the reconstruction of post-ISIS Iraq, which is done in the shadow of the passivity of Iran's economic presence in this country, have on Iran's national security? The study claims that the investment of regional powers in Iraq, which leads to an increase in the influence of these powers and a change in Iraqi policies and orientations in the shadow of Iran's economic passivity in this country, increases Iran's national security threats in economic, political, social, military and environmental fields. The present study tries to investigate the subject with a descriptive-analytical method.