West Asia

In more recent years, it has become increasingly recognized that R&D (research and development) is a key driver of economic growth, a source of innovation and change, and as such stimulates improvements in productivity and economic competitiveness. It is closely associated with knowledge and flexibility, two factors that have gained new significance as a source of competitiveness in an increasingly globalized world economy. In this paper the relationship between bilateral trade and R&D differences among selected east and west Asian countries is investigated, specifying a semi-parametric gravity model over 1990-2013. Despite the majority of empirical analysis, we explore the relationship between trade and R&D differences through a nonparametric analysis. The results confirm that there is a nonparametric relationship between bilateral exports and R&D differences for both. The implication is that countries with various levels of R&D activities, namely arising from entrepreneurial activities, can affect widely and substantially international trade flows.

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 article examines the theme of cultural imperialism through a case-study of change in nineteenth-century intellectual discourse. It analyzes an Iranian intellectual discourse, which is known, according to the Persian nomenclature, as the discourse of “misery” (badbaxti). The article shows that throughout the nineteenth-century, the perception of Iranian intellectuals changed, rather drastically, from self-confidence to self-immiseration. This argument is grounded in a close textual contrast between two representative texts. Mirza Saleh Shirazi’s Safar-nāme (1815), representing confidence, is contrasted with Siyāḥat-nāme-ye Ebrāhim Beyk or “The Travel Diary of Ibrahim Beg” (1895), which articulated the idea of an incomparable Iranian misery. The author of  Siyāḥat-nāme-ye Ebrāhim Beyk captured this discursive transformation when he wrote: “there is no country on the face of the planet today more miserable than Iran.” The discourse of misery had profound consequences well into the present. Self-immiseration entered popular culture in the Pahlavi period (1925-1979) and intensified in the Islamic Republican period (1979-present). The discourse of misery has captivated modern Iranian consciousness, without necessarily corresponding to social reality.

Peace and security are blessings that God has given to mankind for the sake of growth and development of human societies. What is certain is that peace is a human ideal and all human beings need peace and comfort in their daily lives to work and strive and to realize their material and spiritual abilities. Terrorism -as an old phenomenon with a new form and nature- is one of the most important and challenging problems of our world. Meanwhile, it is so brutal, outrageous, scary and reprehensible that it can be called as "cancer of our modern world". Terrorism by itself does not determine the system of action and reaction. Dealing with terrorism must follow a logical order; An order that is defined against all anti-peace phenomena and lies in natural, divine and human values. The international system lacks a clear and comprehensive strategy against security threats and peace violations. Therefore, the counter-terrorism mechanisms and measures stipulated in the existing international documents have sometimes taken a direction that are not necessarily compatible with other measures that have been established regarding other categories of world peace; Rather, their contradictions and incompatibilities are clearly visible in practice. With an innovative action, especially in the last decade, the Islamic Republic of Iran has taken a strategy to eradicate terrorism. In this regard, while dealing with the roots and intellectual and religious foundations of terrorism, Iran has simultaneously, Tactically and operationally tried to fight with the manifestations of terrorism and prevent the expansion of terrorist attacks. in this field, it has had extensive cooperation with international and regional organizations and their executive bodies, such as Interpol.

Changes in the security order of the regions cause changes in the control systems and containment of the threats of extra-regional intervening powers. This evolution can be seen in the dimensions of the units, the type of relationships, the layers of the units' communication with each other, and the way the units function to ensure their security interests. In the region of West Asia, which has gone through three periods of regulation, we are witnessing significant developments in the field of regulation. Simple and linear security system, complex security system and network security system are three periods of regulation in which there are three types of control and containment systems. Containment of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a regional security threat has always been discussed in US foreign policy after the victory of the Islamic Revolution. In this framework, the following research question is raised: What evolution has the American control and restraint system undergone against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and how has this evolution been? In response to the above question, the following hypothesis is proposed: the change in the security order of the West Asian region has caused the American control system to become a network control system, and this system is a four-layer network (geopolitics, geoeconomics, geoenergy, and geoculture) against The Islamic Republic of Iran operates. The research method in this article is descriptive-explanatory and documentary and library methods were used to collect the materials.

Considering that the greatest threat to Iran in the past 400 years has emerged from the geography of Iraq (from the time of the Ottoman rule and onwards), it must be noted that Iraq is one of Iran's most important neighbors. Therefore, continuous examination of the shaping factors in Iran-Iraq relations is crucial. Although the history of Iran-Iraq relations spans over a century, this article seeks to explore, utilizing a historical-comparative method and an analytical approach, the shaping factors of Iran-Iraq relations from 2003 to 2022. The argument presented in this article suggests that while Iran managed to expand its regional influence in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and replaced the pattern of hostility and tension of the Ba'athist era with a pattern of interaction and cooperation, the element of cooperation and interaction in Iran-Iraq relations is gradually fading due to changes and developments at domestic, regional and international levels.

Despite benefiting from abundant resources and energy, countries in Western Asia have creat-ed a situation for the region that, in addition to the presence of major powers, interference in regional affairs, and insecurity, the formation of an effective and successful security system in the region fails. In this regard, the Arab NATO plan can be pointed out. In this research, in the framework of Barry Buzan's theory of regional collective security, with an emphasis on the Arab NATO, the patterns of participatory security in the West Asia region were examined and analyzed. The researchers of this study believe that the participatory security model in West Asia has not been successful for several reasons. For this reason, alliances such as the Arab NATO will not be successful if formed.

Southwest Asia has played a central role in the geopolitics of the global system since the Cold War years. All characteristics of a geopolitical region can be observed in Southwest Asia. In this geographical area, signs of challenge, crisis, conflict, and competition for power expansion among regional actors and significant powers are expanding. The security environment of Southwest Asia is linked with many indicators of "geopolitics of crisis" and "geopolitics of chaos." Given these conditions, as well as the political and social challenges and the geopoliti-cal conflicts and security concerns in the region, the actions of actors—especially the emer-gence of centrifugal actors in Southwest Asia—will also change. Accordingly, it is predictable that the states of Southwest Asia can achieve their goals under conditions of stability and se-curity. As a result, the national goals and interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran can also be better secured under such conditions. In other words, the agent's actions in this region influ-ence the security environment of this area. The aim of this study is to explain the actions of the agents and examine the impact of their actions on the processes of the security environ-ment. The study's findings show that one of Iran's security priorities in Southwest Asia is to prevent the increase of influence by regional and extra-regional powers in this area and reduce it. In this regard, Iran seeks to tie its interests to the region by creating economic and cultural relations that ensure mutual and multilateral benefits through appropriate and reasonable se-curity policy.