Iran

Shanghai cooperation organization, is a regional multilateral cooperation organization the permanent and observer members of which account for about 44% of world population, 20% of oil reservations and about 40% of world gas reservations. Also, permanent and observer countries of this organization have a significant share in oil and gas production. 24% world oil production as well as over 30% of world gas production is done in Shanghai region. Therefore, given the aggregation of the largest energy producers (Iran and Russia) alongside the largest energy consumers (China and India) in this organization and its huge energy potential, one of the cooperation fields is energy. As such, in order to provide some recommendations for Iran about the manner of membership in the organization using scenario planning method, this research investigates the impact of scenarios facing Iran and Shanghai organization on energy geopolitics and concludes that if Iran become a full member of Shanghai organization, it can take advantages from its positive consequences on energy security (acquisition of demand security, eliminate the threat of sanctions, foreign investment and access to technology)

U.S foreign policy toward Iran had been so uncertain and variable since the beginning of this relation, but alongside fluctuations, some kind of consistency is distinguishable. Until the Islamic revolution of 1979by the Iranian people, Iran was playing a major role in the U.S. anti-communist strategy in the Middle East. U.S grand strategy was based on its confrontation with USSR and Iran was the key for controlling the Middle East and process of underpinning Iran’s power as a liberal ally in the region was at the core of U.S considerations in Iran. After the 1979 revolution, Iran’s priority had changed as a regional actor and it no longer identified itself as a member in the Western coalition based on American foreign policy. On the other hand, U.S. also stopped to identify Iran as a friend and started to demonize the new role Iran was playing in the Middle East and the world. By having these trends in mind, a very fundamental, important question strikes the mind: Did U.S has a turning point in its foreign policy toward Iran after the 1979 or the principle of its foreign policy was fixed and only tactical changes occurred? In order to answer this question I’m going to examine the history of U.S foreign policy toward Iran, particularly the post-revolutionary period. This analysis will be conducted according to the Copenhagen school definition of security and concept of securitization. This theoretical frame work brought us a comprehensive understanding of security and also a relative, useful categorization of security strategy in foreign policy. Different methodological approaches could be used in these frameworks but in this research I have used the discourse analysis method to explore the subject of research. Conclusion of the research shows us that American strategy toward Iran covers both permanent and variable factors but the permanent element was the key and variable factors made changes only in tactical level. U.S foreign policy was basically directed toward securitizing Iran but the world system, regional and national events also made it more powerful. It means that after the Islamic revolution of Iran, U.S. has continuously made an attempt in persuading other actors to securitize Iran. Before the Cold War, this securitization was in a low level but after the Cold War it can be classified as a high-securitization.

Background: assessment of psychopathy has gained much attention in the past few decades. The four-factor model of psychopathy has proved to be an efficient model for assessment of psychopathy in forensic and non-forensic samples. Several measures have been developed to capture the four-factor model. These four factors are labeled as interpersonal manipulation, criminal tendencies, erratic lifestyle, and callous affect. Research on psychopathy has remained quite limited in Iran. The present study aimed to validate a 20-item measure of psychopathy consistent with the four-factor model of psychopathy. Williams et al. (2007) model and high-loading items were subjected to a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Moreover, reliability coefficients and gender differences were evaluated. Methods: a convenience sample of 260 university students was recruited from Tehran, Iran. For each factor, a battery of 5 high-loading items (c.f., Williams et al., 2007) was prepared and translated into Persian following the standard back-translation technique. Of note, item 13 (I enjoy drinking and doing wild things) was altered a little to be consistent with Iranian culture. The response option was provided in a 5-point Likert-type format. Potential participants were approached and invited to take part in a psychological study about social behavior. Descriptive statistics, factor structure, internal consistency, and gender differences were evaluated. Results: item 6 (I’ve stolen a motor vehicle) had the lowest mean while item 13 (I enjoy drinking and doing wild things) had the highest. For interpersonal manipulation, criminal tendencies, erratic lifestyle, and callous affect, the alpha coefficients were 0.55, 0.78, 0.70, and 0.52, respectively. Additionally, the full-scale alpha was 0.79. Goodness-of-fit indices suggested an acceptable fit for the hypothesized four-factor structure of the scale (CMIN/DF = 1.80, RMSEA = 0.056, CFI = 0.90, TLI = 0.88, and GFI = 0.91). An evaluation of gender differences indicated that men had higher scores in all four subscales (0.40 < d < 0.66) as well as the total score (d = 0.76). Conclusion: the present findings supported the factorial validity and internal consistency of the 20-item self-report measure of psychopathy in Iranian university students. Consistent with previous findings, men showed higher psychopathy, as measured by this newly validated measure. This measure could capture the four-factor model of psychopathy. Therefore, this short scale may be used in future psychopathy research in Iran.

The present paper is an attempt to apply Bourdieu’s field theory to the political field of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The concept of field, as explained by Bourdieu, provides a suitable theoretical framework to identify and explain the complexities and intricacies of different behaviors of this system and analyze its absolutely different practices in domestic and international arenas. The main question of this paper is: What is the relationship between political field and other fields in Iranian political landscape? The hypothesis formulate to answer this question is: the political field in the Islamic Republic of Iran has turned into the most preponderant field and this very field in order to survive has dominated other fields, taking away the possibility of their independence. The findings of this paper shows that the growth of political field not only has created limitations for other fields, but also has politicized other fields including the field of religion.

This article explores the relation of Iranian ports with their surrounding regions from the geopolitical-spatial perspective since 6th century BC. Content analysis of historical data obtained from written, pictorial and secondary sources is the method used to achieve this aim. The results denote that the geopolitical-spatial evolution of Iranian ports and the surrounding regions can be classified into three general eras: in the first era (from 6th to 15th century), with the domination of the most powerful Iranian states on both sides of the Persian Gulf, the geopolitical-spatial of Iran often had foreland-oriented structure with mutual interaction of ports and hinterlands especially up to regional scale. In the second era (from 16th to 19th century) which coincided with the arrival of powerful foreign forces in the Persian Gulf, the rulers implemented a geopolitical policy: the protection of mainland with the aim of territorial integrity maintenance. So, in this era hinterland-oriented spatial structure was formed based on the interaction in local, regional and national levels. Also, the geospatial scheme of the country was founded on the basis of endogenous activities and integration political power. In the third era and with the exploration of oil (beginning of the 20th century till now), production, trade and distribution system of the country has undergone radical changes and along with formation of powerful world capitalist system, it has become subject to political and economic changes of this system. Directing capital flow to the capital and obtaining such development policies as growth pole, spatial structure of the country has tended towards corridor- polarized pattern. This pattern has led to the pole-oriented hinterland spatial structure based on single-product (oil) export. In other words, in this era, the political, spatial and economical geography relied on the political and economic decisions that were concentrated in the capital. Accordingly, spatial planning in the local-regional hinterland about habitats, activities and distribution of services depended on the capital decisions in the national hinterland.

International Transport Corridors and Interstate Pipelines are important sources of conflict and competition between major powers. From a Realistic point of view, they are not only economic Initiatives but also can be used as a political leverage for countries en route. So each major power has proposed its own preferred corridor. EU’s TRACECA Initiative and Southern Gas Corridor, United State’s New Silk Road and its support for pipelines like BTE, TCP, TAPI etc, Chinese OBOR Initiative and Russia's support for International North-South Corridor-INSC and various pipeline projects are obviously in line with this Realistic Approach. I.R. Iran due to its geopolitical situation potentially faces different choices, so it is important to exactly survey this initiatives and obstacles facing. After offering a very exact and comprehensive description of European supported Interstate Initiatives in Caspian Sea and Black sea, this article will evaluate the consequences of the resolution of nuclear issue between I. R. Iran and the West and continuation of Development Oriented Foreign Policy in terms of reducing obstacles facing these initiatives. The hypothesis is that the resolution of nuclear issue, termination of sanctions and continuation of development oriented Foreign Policy will considerably ease the obstacles that development of Southern Gas Corridor-SGC facing, but will not overshadow TRACECA’s status.

India and Israel are in a multilateral long-term relationship with each other. Iran, as a third party, has two different stances with regard to these two countries. On the one, Iranian culture has its root in India and Iranian have longstanding formal and informal relationship with this country; on the other hand, because of the emergence of Israel and the way it treats Muslims it has been known as a usurper since the Islamic Revolution and is regarded as one of Iran's enemies. Relationship between Iran’s enemy and ally can create conditions worthy of study. This study is aimed at evaluating geo-culture policies of Israel in India and its impact on cultural influence of Iran in the Indian subcontinent. This is a descriptive-analytical research, the results of which are obtained based on library studies. The research hypothesis is that expansion of friendly ties between Israel and India could threaten Iran's national interests. Studies have shown that Israel has adopted various policies to reduce the effectiveness of Iran influence in Indian society and limit the influence of Persian culture