China

China's foreign policy has undergone a real change since World War II. Since the economic recovery, Beijing has adopted a coherent and clear strategy for all regions, including the Eurasian macro-region. The research question is “what model can be used to analyze China's foreign policy strategy in Eurasia and what is Iran's position in this strategy?’’ In response, China's foreign policy strategy in Eurasia can be analyzed from the Western point of view according to the Hobbesian realist model, from the Russian point of view according to Locke’s competitive opportunity-threat model, and finally from the Chinese point of view according to the Kantian model of cooperation. The results also show that Iran is increasingly important in China's foreign policy strategy in Eurasia, but Chinese pragmatism under the influence of international sanctions has made Turkey and Pakistan the main priorities in the country's strategy in Eurasia. The purpose of this research is to examine the patterns of analysis of China's foreign policy strategy in Eurasia with an emphasis on Iran's position. The method of this research is case adaptation to the theory.

Following World War II, the United States constructed a liberal international order that grew noticeably more influential after the Cold War. Today, this order is in crisis, in a way that certain  International Relations theorists mention the emergence of a post-liberal international order. In this relation COVID-19, as the most severe global public health crisis, has created an unexpected and serious problem in the International order. Taking into account this new international order, this research focuses on the following questions: What kinds of order are possible and whether COVID-19 Can be considered as an opportunity that helps China to build international order as a hegemon? In answer to these questions, this paper uses a conceptual model to predict the future international order according to the factor of Covid-19 and the role of China in this order. According to the existing models and with respect to the most important challenges for China to achieve a hegemonic position, we will conclude that the future order of the international system will remain as security-based international order, with two actors (China and Us) and two different ideologies. 

The geopolitical competition between India on one hand and the China-Pakistan axis, on the other hand, have made various researchers investigate the different, unknown, and influential aspects of this competition. One of the fields that can influence the analysis of these competitions is political geography. Therefore, in the present research, the researchers have tried to create a new point of view regarding Iran's position in the geopolitical competition between China and India by relying on the sources and analyses that have been done by Indian authors and researchers regarding the issue of China-India competition and also Iran's position in this competition. The authors of this research adopted a meta-analytic approach to drive conclusions from the collected data. Authentic documents in books, scientific-research articles, reliable internet websites and important international news agencies were analyzed to collect the relevant data. The findings suggest that regarding geopolitical access, both China and India are persistently seeking to facilitate their connection to Eurasia through Iran and Pakistan and thus increase their geopolitical weight to enjoy a better position in world politics in the 21 st century.

Background: China is the undisputed power of sports in the world today and due to the close relations of China and Iran in many different aspects, the bilateral scientific works can be considered as well. Aim : The purpose of this study was to analyze the opportunities for the development of championship sports with a look at the cooperation document between Iran and China. Materials and Methods: The present study was a qualitative (descriptive-analytical) type of library studies in terms of applied purpose and in terms of data collection, which examined scientific works including books, articles, and notes during 2010-2021 about Iranian sports and China took place. Results: The research findings showed that the Islamic Republic of Iran and China, as two superpowers of West and East Asia, can have different sports interactions with each other in team and individual disciplines, respectively. In addition, the Iranians can use sport as a starting point and a tool to facilitate and accelerate their political-trade relations by winning 76 and the Chinese by winning 696 medals in the Summer and Winter Olympics; For example, the Chinese in the fields of swimming and diving, gymnastics, table tennis and recently weightlifting have emerged as the undisputed power of the world, while Iran can also compete in team sports such as football, volleyball and even Basketball to share its experiences in human resource development as the most important precondition for national excellence with this country. Conclusion: All in all, sport as a facilitator between Iran and China can develop the future political communications. China is the pioneer of Olympic Games and 25 years agreement can lead to brilliant future for Iranians.

As a region rich in oil and gas resources, low energy prices, and a unique geopolitical position, the Middle East has been the focus of global attention, particularly for economic powers such as China and India. Due to the wide gap between energy supply and demand, especially for oil, the two countries have developed a special diplomacy for their energy supplies. Understanding the oil policies of Beijing and New Delhi as the main actors in the energy market of the Middle East is paramount for the leading oil-producing countries. By conducting a comparative analysis of the Delhi–Beijing oil policies in the Middle East, the present article will ask how domestic, regional, and international variables affect the Chinese and Indian oil policies in this region. The authors have compared the following critical variables in answer to this question: the legal structure and decision-making process, self-sufficiency levels, the geopolitical position toward the Middle East, oil diplomacy, the role of technology, and the international economic-political position of the two countries. Our findings show that the Beijing government has formulated its oil policy using a single, specific decision-making body in the energy sector. It has relied on expanding multilateral ties with other countries, long-term investments, long-term loans, expanding energy transfer pipelines, and long-term contracts to deepen its relations with oil-rich countries, particularly those in West Asia. On the other hand, India has based its diplomacy on short-term economic contracts, situation analysis, and needs assessment. It is, however, clear that both countries will continue to depend on oil from the Middle East in the medium term despite the threat of US sanctions

The South China Sea, along with the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait, is described as one of the three hotspots in East Asia because of its potential for conflict of interest and threat to peace and security. Therefore, the issue of its borders is of international importance. As a quasi-closed sea, it is home to numerous small islands and cliffs, as well as abundant living and non-marine reserves, as well as providing key maritime routes for commercial navigation. For these reasons, the sea has become the target of conflict between coastal countries and its neighbors. In this sea, the main issues in dispute are: 1- Border disputes over the determination of the lines of origin, the boundaries of the territorial seas and also the exclusive economic zone2. Territorial disputes over several islands, including the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos. Because of its superior power, as well as some unproven historical claims, China sets the nine-dash as the final line of its sovereignty, some of which extend as far as the coastal sea. The United States and the countries bordering the South China Sea strongly oppose this, as well as China's historic claims. The littoral states of the South China Sea consider the historic claims and the nine-dash claimed by the Chinese government to be contrary to the laws of the UN Convention. The United States, as a trans-regional player, also provides diverse support to coastal countries. In this research, with a descriptive analytical approach and using new sources, the disputed issues between the claiming countries have been studied and the role of the United States in terms of geopolitical competition has been analyzed.

The expansion of NATO to the East under the policies of Atlanticism is one of the current issues of international relations, which has a lot to think about for the countries involved in this policy, their neighbors and the international order. After the expansion of NATO to the east, what will happen in the spheres of influence of NATO and the neighboring countries of those spheres and the conditions created, causes predictions in this field; One of them is the evaluation of the feasibility of cooperation between China and Russia with their own special conditions against this action, that is, Atlanticism. After experiencing many ups and downs in China-Russia relations, these two countries have gradually expanded their comprehensive cooperation since the mid-1990s. In the meantime, the expansion of NATO to the east is one of the important political, military and security issues that has led to the expression of common concern. And at the same time, the cooperation and positions of the two countries have come closer, especially towards the policies and actions of America and even Europe. Russia's concern about the presence of NATO in its borders and China's concern about the close military cooperation of the West with Taiwan have caused the two countries to work harder for mutual cooperation and their development fields. The concept of new Atlanticism provides a framework for analyzing security and normative challenges facing Europe and the world. This work and many similar works emphasize the fact that the behavior of America and its allies in the international system has become the basis for the creation of various coalitions and alliances. From the perspective of this research and emphasizing the threat balance theory, when the hegemon country and its allies create threats, or show threatening behaviors; They will create coalitions and alliances. In this article, an attempt was made to discuss the feasibility of expanding cooperation between China and Russia against Atlanticism by using the theoretical framework of threat balance. And the topic of these cooperation was examined according to the concepts, general capabilities such as (population, economic power, military power, etc.), geographical proximity, offensive capabilities and offensive intentions from the perspective of the threat balance theory.

Southwest Asia, despite its geographical, historical, cultural, and economic contexts, is extremely weak in terms of degree of convergence, and a series of border, political, security, and religious differences have led to critical conditions and suspicion of governments. has brought. Existing economic necessities, especially for countries with closed lands far from the high seas and effective international transportation networks. The aim of this study is to transform the convergence in West Asia and Southwest Asia and Iran's position in it. Southwest Asia is very important from both the land and sea dimensions of the Road Belt Initiative, but since the maritime dimension of this strategy covers a large part of the countries in the region, Southwest Asia has become a region that can play a maritime role. Play a leading role in achieving China's foreign policy goals. There are many reasons for Southwest Asia's pivotal position in China's maritime strategy, which is the most important source of energy for China's economy, as China is heavily dependent on energy imports for economic stability and continued production. Iran played a key role in the ancient Silk Road. From a geopolitical, economic and cultural point of view, Iran is an important country in the road belt initiative.

This paper is an attempt to reconsider the legacy of universalism of traditional empires from the perspective of systems theory. In the West, the system ideas were already present in ancient Greek/Roman philosophy and developed further since the Renaissance within the domain of natural sciences (anatomy, mechanics or astronomy), whereas they did not develop as much in social sciences and particularly in politics, which lacks a holistic understanding. In the universal empires of the East (such as Iran, China and Russia) the system paradigm developed from the political life of centralized statehood. The core concept of the traditional imperial universalism was a particular understanding of “justice”, not as equality or absence of coercion, but as a certain form of social order. As the Chinese philosopher Xunzi and the Persian philosopher Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, noted, “justice” is primarily an “equilibrium”, that is a way of maintaining optimal interrelationships between different aspects of society within a single political whole. Traditional imperial universalism understood “just order” as a centralized hierarchical order. However, the current state of the systems approach and the complexity theory allows the reconsideration of the legacy of traditional universalism as the principle of totality of organizational connections and hierarchies of “systemic elements”, in the terminology of Russian philosopher, Alexander Bogdanov. It is concluded that the three Eastern thinkers share similar systematic understanding of “justice” as a hierarchically-arranged political order, coordinated on the basis of a single plan, which permits to maintain a dynamic balance.

Regional Order and Maximum Pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran, an American NarrativeAbstractOver time, various foreign policy and International Relations scholars have offered different themes and arguments on foreign policy. The necessity to review these themes and definitions are due to the continuity of foreign policy as a continuum, in which foreign policy and its different terms take shape and are formed. This study conducts a research on an American perspective of the maximum pressure campaign against Iran, which was a new term and policy enforced by the Trump administration. It reviews different tools of American statecraft and argues that the maximum pressure campaign was a multilayered hybrid warfare with repercussions. In this regard, historically, the American security arrangement in Western Asia has undergone various stages. In the 1970s it was based on the Twin Pillars of Nixon while later on it was based on confrontation which was adopted under different terms such as dual containment and containment. In this study through a contextual analysis it is deducted that the campaign against Iran was an American example of multi-layered hybrid warfare. In addition, it is argued that this multi-layered hybrid warfare created an unstable region. This development alongside the American pivot to Asia has created a regional arrangement which involves great power competition and is inclined towards Chinese and Russian intervention and mediation. Thus an increased third party foothold and a destabilized regional order are the outcomes of the maximum campaign, which ostensibly contradict the American pivot to Asia.

Smart power is one of the concepts and terms derived from the western discourse and the order of liberal democracy, which has specific meanings, meanings and indicators in this discourse. What is emphasized in this article is a different narrative from the Chinese perspective to smart power. Statistical data, documents and current trends all confirm that despite the dominance of the liberal order and its mechanisms on the political and economic structures of the world, Beijing has increasingly expanded its role and influence in different regions of the world, including Africa. This country has become a key country in the international system by taking advantage of the international opportunities provided by globalization along with the fundamental redefinition of national principles and interests. What enables a deep analysis in the text of this apparent conflict is the Chinese narrative of intelligent power, which is rooted in Chinese culture and thoughts, contemporary historical developments, and ultimately the consensus of the country's elites. Therefore, the main question of this article can be posed as what are the coordinates of Chinese smart power and how can the development and influence of China in Africa be justified based on the concepts and coordinates of this concept of soft power?Keywords: China, African continent, smart power, Chinese culture, influence

Sino-US Relations in the Persian Gulf during Obama’s AdministrationAbstract:The Persian Gulf is one of the most important regions of the world that has been vital for the great powers since long time ago, not only for its energy resources but also its strategic location. After the British withdrawal from the region in 1971, the United States filled the vacuum and tried to preserve the status quo during the cold war. Since 1980s China was also attracted by the huge energy resources and the vast market of the region. But in the 21st century and the rise of China as the second largest economy of the world, the importance of the Persian Gulf enhanced in China’s view to manage its energy needs and benefit from its lucrative market and possible bilateral capital investment. This article intends to examine the relationships between China and the United States of America during the Obama’s administration. By using the “Power Cycle Theory” it is concluded that the United States has accepted the Chinese position as the rising power in the Persian Gulf region; and that their relationships were based on collaboration and competition, not confrontation or hostility; which seems to continue in the foreseeable future as well. Key Words: The Persian Gulf, China, The United States, Collaboration, Competition, Confrontation, Hostility.

The Scythian Empire is a controversial book with a charming title that can attract the attention of any scholar. Christopher I. Beckwith presents claims in this book that accepting each one of them leads us to rethink many previous customary historical beliefs. Some of his theories are novel but most of them are rehabilitation of older obsolete ideas. The book wraps a wide range of specialized topics in the fields of history, archeology, and linguistics; but deals with most of them on a superficial level. Since the Scythians were an Iranian ethnic group, this work is especially recommended for scholars of Iranian history, as unfortunately, the significance of the Scythians in shaping Iranian history has not been recognized as other ancient Iranians such as the Persians. In a broader sense, this work can be also useful for scholars interested in the Iranian world and its relations with neighboring civilizations, Eurasia, Central Asia, and China.   

Mosques represent Islamic art and identity and have displayed themselves in each geographical region in a way compatible with the culture and identity of that society. The significance of this research lies in its meticulous examination of early mosques within two dis tinct cultural and societal contexts, Iran and China. By inves tigating these mosques' architectural, cultural, and spatial attributes, this s tudy sheds light on the divergent approaches of two communities facing the same religious, social, environmental, and cultural challenges during a comparable his torical period. Despite sharing the same religious foundation and featuring similar spatial arrangements within the mosques, the contras ting cultural affinities reveal the crucial need to comprehend and appreciate the dis tinctive qualities inherent to early mosques in these two dis tinct cultural spheres. This research endeavor is a pioneering exploration toward unraveling the complexities surrounding early mosques, thereby deepening our unders tanding of their his torical and cultural significance in disparate cultural contexts. The research methodology involves a comprehensive review of library sources, articles, and software analysis using Depthmap X. As a result, and mosques have been compared based on the four main dimensions of architecture: spatial, conceptual, and philosophical s tructural features. Iranian mosques demons trate a fusion of Saudi Arabian Islamic architecture and Iranian design, emphasizing entrance connectivity. Chinese mosques, on the other hand, blend Islamic elements with ancient Chinese architectural art, prioritizing courtyard connectivity and integrating environmental elements, resulting in a dis tinctly Asian flavor.