مطالب

The United States actively engages in various regional orders, here with a particular focus on West Africa. Its approach involves organizing and leveraging relations with regional powers to influence and regulate the regional order. West Africa has gained significance in the international order, attracting the attention of the United States. Nigeria, as a key player in the region, plays a substantial role in Africa and West Africa, establishing a strategic alliance with the United States over several decades. This article explores Nigeria's role in the U.S. security strategy within the West African region. Notably, this topic has received limited attention in international relations literature, particularly within U.S.-Nigeria relations. Scholars have not reached a consensus on the impact and implications of Nigeria's role in U.S. security strategy, specifically in addressing regional insecurities. The central argument posited is that to safeguard its geo-strategic, geo-political, and geo-economic interests, as well as manage strategic rivalries in the region, the United States strategically engages with Nigeria. Nigeria serves as a crucial partner for the U.S. in containing the expansion of other powers in the region. The intersection of two key factors in Nigerian geopolitics—its SEA geopolitics in the Atlantic and its geoeconomic significance due to oil production and other strategic resources—establishes Nigeria as a crucial player in the American regional security strategy. In essence, the article contends that Nigeria's unique geopolitical and geoeconomic attributes contribute to its special position in the U.S. regional security strategy, allowing the United States to maintain influence and counterbalance the activities of other powers in West Africa.

This article delves into the cultural invasion faced by Islamic society following the Islamic Revolution, focusing on how Western powers have strategically attempted to undermine indigenous cultures through materialism and cultural hegemony. The primary research question of this study is, what factors have contributed to the cultural penetration of Western values in Iran, and how can these influences be resisted in line with the perspectives of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei? The hypothesis suggests that cultural infiltration is not merely a historical issue but a modern tactic used by Western forces to weaken Islamic ideals and revolutionary movements, especially in the post-revolutionary context. Through a content analysis of Ayatollah Khamenei's speeches and writings, the study identifies the key components of cultural resistance, such as the need for a solid intellectual foundation, an in-depth understanding of the enemy's tactics, and an active presence in the digital and cyberspace spheres. The research highlights that these elements are essential for developing an effective strategy against cultural domination. Moreover, the study reveals that public participation and solidarity, while important, are less critical in countering cultural infiltration than a stronger ideological framework and intellectual empowerment. This suggests that the focus should shift towards strengthening the cultural and intellectual defenses of society, with particular attention to the role of education, media, and critical thinking in resisting foreign cultural pressure. The study concludes that in order to safeguard cultural security in Iran, it is imperative to activate public diplomacy, promote cultural assimilation based on resistance, and establish an Iranian-Islamic progress plan that emphasizes self-reliance and the preservation of indigenous cultural values. These strategies are not only crucial for maintaining cultural sovereignty but also for reinforcing the broader ideological and political independence of Iran.

In the context of efficient governance, all the pillars of any political system in the 21st century use their capacities to secure and guarantee national interests as facilitators and complements of the state, whereas in the past this was the sole responsibility of the states. The role of parliaments in this field, which is referred to as parliamentary diplomacy, falls within the aforementioned framework. In this regard, the of the Islamic Parliament of Iran, as an active parliament in the field of multilateral parliamentary diplomacy, has participated in the establishment of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly and the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC). In addition, by constantly attending the meetings of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, it has emphasized its importance in international relations. Therefore, in the present article, using documents and library resources by reading texts in an exploratory method in response to the question of what achievements the Islamic Parliament of Iran has made in the framework of parliamentary diplomacy, This hypothesis is examined based on the rational choice institutionalism, Although the Islamic Parliament of Iran has turned to multilateral parliamentarism in recent years, efforts to strengthen it as a complementary and facilitating diplomacy through cooperation with the parliaments of neighboring countries are a constructive step.