مطالب

In this historical analysis of US foreign policy toward Iran during the presidency of George W. Bush, the author aims to decipher the overarching policy approach guiding United States' Iran policy in the context of the main issues arising during this time period. George W. Bush started his presidency with the legacy of past presidents, viewing Iran as a threat to US interests and drawing from the policy tool box that had been developed during the previous four administrations. In this paper, the implementation of these different policy approaches will be discussed in the context of the events of September 11, the Afghanistan and the Iraq wars, and the nuclear issue. Engagement, containment, and covert and overt means of destabilizing the Islamic Republic of Iran will be discussed. The roots of many of the current issues in U.S. -Iran relations as well as the tactics used to tackle them could be traced to the period under study. In the years after the presidency of George W. Bush and despite the different tactics used, this mentality has led presidents as diverse as Obama and Trump to suffer from the same strategic mistake: an instrumental approach to Iran. The failure of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to withstand the transfer of power in the United States shows how the American practice of the weaponization of all available means to deal with Iran, including diplomacy and economic tools, is jeopardizing any real hope for a different direction in US-Iran relations.

Shia, as one of the main components of Islamic society, has always had a revolutionary attitude towards other religions throughout history. The Shi'ite school has been the promoter of movements that have stood up to oppression, and this political thought has shaped Shia political and social movements throughout history. Historically, the turning point of the Shia revolution and the formation of Shia protest movements is the Ashura incident in the year 61 AH. And the land of Karbala as the Shias holy shrine of and the place of Imam Hussein martyrdom (a.s.) has always, at all times and places, conveyed the ideological burden of the Ashura event to Shia communities. Thus, the formation and activity of Shia movements can be traced well after the Karbala event and examined in terms of the effects that Karbala has had on their structure and continuity in different categories. The present study aimed to investigate the role of Karbala in the formation and continuation of Shia movements in the context of political geography based on Gatman's theory of iconography. To this aim, Descriptive-analytical methods and library and document studies are used. Based on the results, this influence has not always been the same at different times, and in each period, it has manifested itself in different ways depending on the temporal and spatial requirements and the degree of Shia community readiness. That can investigate the type and extent of this effect on dual format in the Imamiyyah and the Zaydiyyah method. So, the categorization of Shi'ite movements is as following: Imam Hussein's revenge and revenge revolts, Zaydiyya uprisings, movements that led to the formation of the government, and contemporary Shi'ite movements.

Professional identity has been perpetually an underlying factor in teacher development. The maintenance of a strong professional identity is a key factor in teacher development which is ultimately a fundamental aspect in the prosperity or failure of any educational system. As a dynamic phenomenon, teachers’ professional identity can be influenced by a variety of factors and particularly any type of educational reform. The present study with an explanatory mixed method design was used to investigate transitions in Iranian EFL teachers’ professional identity in the context of Fundamental Reform Document of Education (2012). For the quantitative phase of the study, a researcher-made questionnaire developed based on the four components of professional identity namely, self-image, self-esteem, job motivation and task perception proposed by Kelchtermans (1993) was distributed among 98 Iranian EFL teachers. Considering the ongoing nature of the professional identity, the questionnaire was assigned to the teachers during the pre-reform and post – reform era. In the qualitative phase, in order to capture a comprehensive picture of the salient factors of teachers’ professional identity and their underlying reasons, a set of semi-structured interviews with 7 volunteer teachers were conducted. The findings revealed that the introduction of the curriculum reform made no change in teachers’ professional identity in terms of self-esteem and task perception, but it slightly affected teachers’ self-image and job motivation. The findings also revealed a potential transition path in Iranian EFL teachers’ professional identity development. Finally, some implications for policy-makers and material developers and suggestions for future researchers were discussed.