Russia

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.

This article discusses the political initiatives of certain states to establish a special tribunal for the prosecution of the crime of aggression which was allegedly committed within the Ukraine situation. The article raises questions about the feasibility of establishing such a court, given that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has within its mandate the possibility to try an aggression case. However, in this article it will be explained why the ICC is not a viable option in this regard, while a new Ukraine tribunal also creates various legal obstacles. The article suggests that the political motivations behind this proposal should be balanced against these legal obstacles, including procedural obstacles related to the crime of aggression and functional immunities, and how proceedings should be conducted in the presence or absence of the accused. The article concludes that a thorough assessment of these legal and procedural considerations must be made before deciding to establish a special Ukraine tribunal.

Russia's military attack on Ukraine has had profound consequences not only for the Middle East, but also for the world. The political-security relations of the two countries, have been affected by this war. Since the beginning of Russia's military operation in Ukraine, Tehran has accepted Moscow's rationale for this attack and has shown its political support at the United Nations General Assembly, but Iran has been cautious in fully supporting this war. Iran's approach regarding the war in Ukraine is important in two ways. First, Iran's orientation towards this war affects Tehran's relations with Moscow. Second, this orientation affects Iran's interests in the international system. For this reason, the main question of this article is "What was Iran's attitude towards the war in Ukraine and how did it affect the relations between Tehran and Moscow?" The hypothesis of the authors is that "Iran's approach towards the war in Ukraine has been cautious - it has neither officially condemned nor supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine - this policy is aimed at maintaining and continuing the relations between the two countries. The purpose of this article is to examine the orientations of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards the war in Ukraine and its effect on the country's relations with Russia. The authors' method in this research is qualitative with a descriptive-analytical approach.

When the war broke out in Ukraine, this eastern European country started a successful resistance that pinned down the Russian army in many regions and created a stalemate that has sparked a war of attrition not only in Ukraine, but also on social media territories in other political spheres. This study investigates the way in which Ukraine war is represented -or to be more precise, fought- in the Iranian X. Data mining methods were employed to search, find and extract posts including “Ukraine war” -or “جنگ اوکراین” in Persian. Our main question was, how did Iranian X users position themselves with regard to war in Ukraine? Using Python, a popular social media research tools, 2027 relevant posts were extracted to show the way in which Iranian users position themselves with regard to Ukraine war. Results revealed that the two Iranian main political factions  -namely Reformists and Fundamentalists- see this war not as a war of other countries, but that of their own. The pro-Western Reformists favor the Ukrainian side of the war and the pro-Eastern Fundamentalists favor the Russian side of the war. They fight on social media as though the Ukrainian war is their own war.

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.

The Russia-Ukraine war has ignited a complex geopolitical landscape with far-reaching implications. Global trade disruptions, economic strain, and heightened geopolitical tensions are only few of the consequences. This crisis serves as a microcosm of broader power struggles, influenced by historical, regional, and resource-based factors. Iran, although geographically distant from the conflict, is deeply intertwined in this complex web due to overlapping geopolitical interests. Ukraine's strategic position as a grain exporter, coupled with the broader context of NATO expansion and Russia's regional dominance, have placed Iran in a pivotal position. A central question emerges: What type of geopolitical pattern does Iran exhibit in response to the Ukraine crisis? Is it interactive, confrontational, dominance-seeking, influence-oriented, or competitive? To answer this, we will examine Iran's behavior across the various dimensions of geopolitics: geoeconomics, geoculture, geostrategy, and politics. By understanding Iran's approach, we can better assess potential opportunities and risks stemming from this crisis. Grounded theory approach was used for qualitative analysis, focusing on patterns and themes. MaxQDA software was used to analyze data and extract key concepts. Authors conclude that Iran-Ukraine geopolitical relations pattern are confrontational in all three dimensions: geostrategy, geoculture, and geoeconomics.

Constructivism theory believes that the power, security and survival of a nation are often shaped by the identity structures and perceptions of its agents, which in turn define the threats and opportunities that it faces. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia suffered an identity crisis and tried to regain its position as a "great power" by adopting the Eurasian identity model. The background of the research showed that realist, geopolitical and traditional investigations cannot correctly and fully explain the way in which the Eurasian identity was formed and its impact on Russia's military actions in Ukraine. As a result, this study tries to answer the question of how Russian identity and perception-based motivations in Russia's attack on Ukraine can be understood through constructivism theory. The main hypothesis is that constructivism provides insights into the main reasons for Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, which can analyze certain factors in this war, which cannot be understood through traditional theories. The findings of this paper confirm that Russia's attack on Ukraine was aligned with its role as a Eurasian power and Putin's identity visions. This article uses a qualitative research method using field and library sources to analyze the hypothesis.

Saudi foreign policy was mostly affected by its strategic relations with the United States as its primary and sole security provider. However, since the rise of Mohammed Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia further developed its relations with permanent non-Western members of the United Nations Security Council, respectively China and Russia. This study mainly contends that this transformation took place through strategic hedging, with regional and global consequences. It is contended that Saudi Arabia has adopted a triangular foreign policy through hedging, in order to balance its foreign relations with America and achieve regional supremacy. In this article, through a thematic analysis, we will investigate the ways in which Saudi foreign policy adopted hedging, the reasons for this action, and the motifs behind this decision. Saudi Arabia has tried to pursue national interests through hedging. This attempt is affected by a post-Cold War environment, preparing for a possible multi-polarization of the international system. Saudi Arabia also tries to improve its image alongside this approach in foreign policy. Correspondingly, this diversification of Saudi foreign policy is noticeably compatible with its domestic policy of opening up and adopting rapid modernization, which is analyzed through hedging and Neoclassical Realism.

Iran and Russia have some common issues due to their geographical proximity; on other hand, these two countries have nearly identical perspectives on some regional and global political and security issues, and they can use their capacities to create a model of complementary cooperation between the two countries.Yet, political-security concerns on the regional and global levels, particularly with regard to US policy towards the two nations, have always impacted these collaborations. Examining the history of relations between Iran and Russia over the last four decades reveals that the United States of America has consistently played the most important and influential role in Tehran-Moscow relations.However, an examination of America's influence on the ups and downs of Iran-Russia relations reveals that this factor has established milestones in increasing Iran and Russia's common understanding of being on the same axis.The existing assumptions also show that, as a result of regional and international trends, cybernetic logic has emerged in the development of Iran-Russia relations with the goal of balancing the threat against America, which may lead to the realization of the Iran-Russia strategic alliance scenario.In this study, the trend effect analysis method is used to identify the role of the United States in the process of Iran-Russia relations, and the new and potential dimensions of Tehran-Moscow relations are identified as a result of the American component.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Karabakh conflict remains the longest and most significant conflict in the Caucasus region. This study examines the role of mediation, a key method in international conflict resolution, within international law, focusing particularly on the Karabakh conflict. The hypothesis suggests that mediation, a fundamental necessity for resolving international disputes, plays a crucial role in mitigating territorial conflicts, including Karabakh. Our findings highlight diverse perspectives regarding Iran's role in Central Asia, particularly in the Southern Caucasus during the conflict. Despite attempts by major powers like Russia, the USA, and Turkey to diminish its influence, Iran has maintained a stance of neutrality, asserting its significance as a neighboring state. Mediation, deeply rooted in various cultural traditions, including Islamic culture, has been strategically employed by Iran based on religious doctrines and national interests. Iran's mediation efforts, supported by cultural and historical commonalities, were conditional on the readiness of the conflicting parties and the appropriateness of the geopolitical context. The complexity of the Karabakh conflict is underscored by its multi-layered nature, the continued crisis, the geopolitical agendas of the mediators, and the number of involved actors. Iran's mediation aims to prevent a tripartite alliance among Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey, stave off the conflict's expansion towards its borders, and curb the involvement of external actors like Israel and the USA. Russia, although geographically distant from Karabakh, plays a pivotal role in the region, amplified by its recent diplomatic maneuvers in response to the USA's attempts to reduce Russian influence in the Southern Caucasus.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the nature of Russia's competitive pattern with Western countries in Africa. It seems that Russia has taken advantage of the “Politics of memory strategy “to expand its influence and to weaken the position of Western countries in Africa. This paper tends to explain why and how the Russian authorities have adopted this behavior to compete with European countries in this continent? The hypothesis is that Russia tries to represent the experience of colonialism to revive the memory of anti-colonialism, through "narratives" using the "genealogy method”. By using the qualitative analysis method, the authors try to prove the research hypotheses. This research covers the African continent between 2019 and 2023, although due to the nature of the research, the Cold War period have also been examined.     

The idea of populism or Narodniki in Russia has received less attention in Iran because it has been placed in the shadow of Russian communist leftist ideas. Conceptually, this idea is far beyond populism and Russian communism, and has had wide-ranging effects both in Russia and outside of this country. How this thought has been able to be so in-fluential is the main issue in this article that the authors have tried to analyze with the aim of investigating its roots, dimensions and consequences. In fact, the main question is how populist thought appeared in Russia and why did it become an effective and wide-spread trend? The hypothesis of this article is that the idea of populism emerged as a reaction to the neglect of the role of the people in the political life of Russia in the sec-ond half of the 19th century, and because of its acceptance by intellectuals and based on a combination of three British constitutional and democratic views. French socialism and Russian nativism were spread. To investigate this hypothesis, we have used the ana-lytical-descriptive method of political thoughts from the perspective of Thomas Spra-gens and in a qualitative format. The finding of this article is that social issues have aris-en and the intellectual responses of thinkers, despite their own timeliness, have been re-produced in a way for centuries and are still useful and very important for understanding the social and political conditions of the periods after that.

The position of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Putin's doctrine of Eurasianism, especially after 2012, has gained considerable importance in Russia's foreign policy. In the light of Putin's Eurasianism discourse, the extensive relations between Iran and Russia in the political, economic, military, security, intelligence and nuclear fields were promoted to the level of two strategic allies. The main question raised in this research is, what was Iran's position in Putin's doctrine of Eurasianism? And what have been the most important influencing variables in the nuclear relations between the two countries? The findings of this research, which was carried out in a descriptive-analytical method and with a historical approach, show that the position of Iran in Putin's doctrine of Eurasianism is important in such a way that without Iran, the said doctrine will face serious problems and many variables will affect the increasing nuclear relations. It has been influential between the two countries, which shows the convergence of the societies and domestic elites between the two countries, the anti-Western foreign policy of the two countries, and the current international conditions resulting from the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Russia's extensive military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and the extensive conse-quences of the continuation of this war have caused the world's food security to face serious challenges due to the fact that these two countries play an important role in the supply and export of grains and oilseeds. This research has sought to use the descriptive-analytical meth-od to test the hypotheses and the library and data collection method to collect data, using the popular Pakistani human security theory, to this Answer the question: What effect did the war between Russia and Ukraine have on the food security of the world? The results indicate that, although the war in Ukraine had quickly disrupted the supply and increased the global price of grains, oilseeds and agricultural inputs, but this process did not continue and therefore with the support measures of countries and International organizations, such as the partial reopen-ing of Black Sea ports through the Black Sea Grain Initiative under the guidance of the Unit-ed Nations, the European Union Solidarity Lines Initiative, increasing global humanitarian efforts, canceling or reducing export restrictions of major food producing and exporting coun-tries. After a period of 4 months since the start of the war in Ukraine, from May 2022 on-wards, the markets have gradually become flexible and adaptable in the face of this crisis, and the prices have returned to the pre-war level by August 2022. This trend improved the adverse effects of the Ukraine crisis on the world's food security significantly and the fear of a contin-uous lack of grain in the world market did not come true.