Neo-Realism

Today, using international relations theories is essential for explaining and analyzing international events and issues. One of the most influential international relations theories is structuralism or neorealism, developed by Kenneth Waltz, which divides into offensive and defensive. Brett Hansen, Toft, and Wivel, with their amendments to Kenneth Waltz's neo-realism, have proposed a model of neo-realism to explain international politics and the foreign behavior of governments. In this model, the strategy of governments against a single pole is affected by the probability of their military conflict. Therefore, if the likelihood of military conflict is low, governments' strategy against a single pole is "Bandwagoning." If the probability of military conflict is high, their approach will be "Balance." What influences the balance and sequence of "Hard" or "Soft" will be "Ideology." In this article, using a descriptive-analytical method, we deal with the confrontation between Iran and the United States. We will say that due to the high probability of conflict and the tremendous ideological distance between them in the region, the Islamic Republic of Iran's strategy against the United States is "Hard Balance."

Space has increasingly shaped the discourse of international relations in the 21st century. Space has always been an attractive area for cooperation and competition between governments and especially great powers. Space is a relatively new and developing scene in the international system. The launch of Sputnik not only created the space race, but also accelerated the arms race and intensified the Cold War between the two rival superpowers. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union dominated space activities. At the same time as the competition that has formed in space, there are sometimes collaborations, the International Space Station is one of the projects that brings together space countries and is seen as a symbol of cooperation between governments in space. However, there is still a sense of competition for supremacy in space even in the presence of such cooperation among all governments, whether those who are superior in terms of space technology or those who have less technological ability. The main question in this article is what role does space play in cooperation and competition between great powers? The hypothesis is that the great powers were always competing and seeking superiority in space from the beginning, and based on the theory of neo-realism, they cooperate with each other in space only to secure their interests and protect their space assets.