https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/ World Politics en daily 1 Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0330 Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0330 https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_8332.html During the Korean War, a bipolar dynamic emerged, with China backing North Korea and the United States supporting South Korea. This model has significantly influenced North Korea’s foreign policy, creating a framework characterized by interaction with China and confrontation with the United States. China’s primary goal has been to ensure the survival of the North Korean regime, even amid difficulties in their bilateral relations. In contrast, the United States perceives North Korea as a threat to global stability. These differing priorities have led to a unique strategic culture in North Korea’s relationships with both China and the United States. Therefore, the central question of this research is: What motivates North Korea’s foreign policy, considering its dual approach of interaction with China and confrontation with the United States? Drawing on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory and employing a descriptive-analytical method, the research findings indicate that North Korea’s engagement with China addresses its Deficiency Needs—specifically, economic stability, security, and relief from isolation. Meanwhile, its confrontational stance towards the United States fulfills its Growth Needs, such as self-esteem, respect, and military development. https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_9558.html The pursuit of maritime power has historically been regarded as one of the fundamental prerequisites for ascending to the status of a global power. China, as a rising power with ambitions to become a dominant actor in international politics, has since the 1980s gradually shifted from a land-oriented strategic posture to a maritime-oriented strategy. While Western scholars have often analyzed China’s maritime strategy through classical Western frameworks—such as Mahan’s sea power theory or Corbett’s maritime strategy—this article argues that these perspectives only partially explain the logic behind China’s naval rise. To provide a more nuanced understanding, this study employs the traditional Chinese strategic game Weiqi (also known as Go) as a conceptual framework. Unlike chess, which emphasizes decisive battles and elimination of the opponent, Weiqi prioritizes gradual expansion, encirclement, flexibility, and patience. The core question addressed here is: How can China’s maritime power strategy be understood through the logic and principles of the Weiqi game? https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_8547.html Iran and China, as two strategic political and security partners, play a significant role in the West Asian region. In this context, Israel’s policies seek to exert a negative influence on their interactions. The primary objective of this study, following an explanatory approach, is to analyze the impact of Israel’s policies on Iran-China relations. The central research question is: What are the key factors shaping Israel’s role in Iran-China relations in West Asia between 2006 and 2021? The findings indicate that Israel’s approach to Iran-China relations follows the logic of both hard and soft balancing, aiming to diminish Iran’s power and weaken its ties with China. To this end, Israel has sought to highlight political Islam as a common threat with China, push Beijing toward imposing sanctions on Iran, strengthen China’s relations with the Arab Gulf states, amplify Iranophobia in China, engage in lobbying against Iranian interests in China, disrupt military cooperation between Iran and China, oppose the 25-year Iran-China agreement, and influence their relations in the context of the Syrian crisis. https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_9155.html This article examines the new challenges confronting state-building in Iraq in the post-2015 period, drawing on the theories of Francis Fukuyama, a contemporary theorist in the field of state-building. The main question posed by this study is: what were the most important challenges encountered in the process of state-building in Iraq between 2015 and 2022? The hypothesis proposed in this regard asserts that the persistence of a centralized, broad-scope state with weak efficacy, the disorganization of society, and the non-supportive role of external actors constitute the principal obstacles to post-ISIS state-building in Iraq from 2015 to 2022. The study employs a descriptive-analytic approach and relies on bibliographic and online sources. The findings indicate that the emergence of a powerful and effective state hinges on the absence of corruption, adequate transparency, efficient and independent institutions, mutual trust between the nation and the state, and non-intervention by foreign actors—elements https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_9409.html After the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, new independent states emerged in Central Asia. Meanwhile, the shared language, identity, and historical background of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan could have potentially led to the creation of a regional union among Persian-speaking states. The central question of this study is: what factors have hindered the formation of a comprehensive regional union among Persian-speaking states? It appears that several factors have served as the primary obstacles to establishing a cohesive regional union among these three states. The findings of this study reveal that despite their linguistic, cultural, racial, and religious similarities, nationalism focused on individual territories, the suppression of Persian identity by certain political regimes, political instability, economic competition, and conflicting interests of major powers have all contributed to impeding the formation of a regional union among Persian-speaking states. To further elucidate this issue, the barriers to uniting Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan are examined through the lens of constructivist theory and an analytical-descriptive approach. https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_9422.html This article offers a comprehensive review of federalism through the lens of political sociology, analyzing the evolution of federal theory from its classical foundations to contemporary interpretations. By critically examining both traditional and modern theoretical frameworks, this research illuminates the dynamic interplay between institutional structures and social forces that shape federal systems. The article proposes a novel theoretical proposition: "The Reflexive Federal Integration Framework (RFIF)," which redefines federalism as an adaptive socio-political process shaped by continuous dialectical tensions between centripetal and centrifugal forces. By integrating institutional, sociological, and process-oriented perspectives, this framework fills significant theoretical gaps in the existing literature. Through a comparative analysis of classical formalist approaches and modern empirical theories, the study demonstrates that federalism operates not merely as a constitutional mechanism, but as a complex socio-political phenomenon that responds to changing power dynamics, identity politics, and governance challenges. This research contributes to the field of political sociology by offering a more nuanced understanding of federalism's role in mediating tensions between unity and diversity, centralization and decentralization, and institutional stability and adaptive change in contemporary political systems https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_9626.html One of the most significant actors whose geopolitical threat perceptions were profoundly influenced by The Iran–Iraq war (1980-1988) was Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to examine how Iran was perceived as a threat and how Saudi Arabia responded within the context of the Iran–Iraq War. In This research data collected through library-based sources and analyzed using discourse analysis. The findings indicate that Saudi Arabia initially perceived Iran as an ideological, political, and security threat and, by focusing on its own geostrategic vulnerabilities, not only represented Iran as a multilayered threat but also implemented a policy of active containment accompanied by multi-level countermeasures. These measures included support for Iraq, the establishment of regional institutions, the instrumental use of oil, …. The results demonstrate that Saudi Arabia’s geopolitical threat perceptions were not merely a product of battlefield conditions, but rather the outcome of a complex interaction among ideological, security, and geoeconomic perceptions, which laid the foundations for Iran-containment policies in subsequent decades. https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_9134.html The dispute between the UK and Iceland over the Hatton–Rockall Basin highlights the complexity of maritime conflicts, which involve legal, environmental, political, and geopolitical factors. This study employs qualitative content analysis within a framework that combines geopolitics, positive peace, and hydro-politics to demonstrate that Iceland’s broad continental shelf claims are primarily driven by geopolitical and economic security concerns rather than legal grounds. Climate change intensifies competition by affecting fish stocks and offshore oil and gas exploration. Iceland’s delay in submitting a formal claim to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf has stalled negotiations. The research recommends renewed multilateral diplomacy under international mediation, incorporating environmental commitments into boundary agreements, and utilizing advanced technologies, such as AI-based marine mapping, to clarify boundaries. The findings also offer valuable lessons for Iranian policymakers in managing similar maritime disputes in the Caspian Sea. https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_9346.html This study, employing the "trend analysis" method and theoretically grounded in the new peripheral doctrine of the Zionist regime, aims to answer the key question: What are the political and geopolitical implications of the deepening ties between the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia for the Islamic Republic of Iran? The findings indicate that this convergence has led to the geopolitical expansion of the Zionist regime, the weakening of the Resistance discourse, and a deliberate push toward legitimizing the Zionist regime within the regional order. Furthermore, the increased influence of the United States—through the reengineering of the regional security order and the formation of new coalitions against Iran—constitutes another dimension of this trend.Additional consequences include the intensification of structural instability in West Asia, the collapse of prospects for sustainable security arrangements, and a growing number of coordinated efforts aimed at the international isolation of Iran. This study concludes that the Zionist regime's new peripheral doctrine is not merely a reactive strategy to existing threats, https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_9423.html The swift changes occurring across Asia, combined with the focus of both China, as a rising power, and the United States, as a global superpower, have prompted many to refer to the 21st century as "the Asian Century". Presently, the Asia-Pacific region has become the playing field and arena of their strategic competition more than ever before. This research uses an explanatory method, combining the theoretical frameworks of offensive realism and the balance of threat to address the question of how to assess the underlying causes of strategic competition between China and the United States in the Indian Ocean. The findings suggest that even amidst intense competition, both countries are striving to establish a strategic balance through offensive realism and balance of threat strategies. China seeks to use the lever of economics to create a community of shared interests, while the United States, under the slogan of a "Free and Open Indo-Pacific," aims to restore its power through close cooperation with regional allies. Furthermore, certain opportunities for cooperation amidst competition and strategic divergence have contributed to the development of a strategic balance mindset between the two powers. https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_9540.html The present study begins by asking two fundamental questions: What impact does the development of artificial intelligence have on the national security or Russia? How can it redefine the power equations in this country? The importance of these issues lies in the fact that artificial intelligence, known as one of the transformative technologies of the 21st century, simultaneously offers extensive opportunities and poses potential threats to governments Russia, as a major global power, is no exception to this rule. This study aims to analyze the positive and negative aspects of the development of this technology and explain its strategic outcomes for the national security. of Russia. For this purpose, the study employed a qualitative and method, using the PESTEL framework, to analyze the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal dimensions of the issue The findings show that the development of artificial intelligence can strengthen the national security of Russia by increasing governance capacities, creating military superiority in new battle arenas, and modernizing information technology infrastructure. https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_9584.html Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election has raised profound questions about the social and political factors influencing electoral behavior. This study investigated how discourses, social identities, and meaning-making processes in American society contributed to Trump's success. This study hypothesized that the redefinition of identity boundaries between "us" and "others," alongside Trump's use of populist discourses such as economic nationalism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and opposition to liberal elites, has reinforced the cohesion of his voter base. This qualitative study employed discourse analysis within a constructivist theoretical framework. This approach elucidates the discursive elements of Trump's rhetoric, including his emphasis on the white working class, economic nationalism, social conservatism, and the construction of opposing "others." The study findings demonstrate that social and political identities constructed around particular discourses have redefined existing realities and generated new political realities. The reproductive cycle of discourse and identity has influenced the electoral behavior of a substantial segment of American society in favor of Trump. https://interpolitics.guilan.ac.ir/article_9586.html With the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime on December 8, 2024 the regional dynamics of the Middle East changed and the gap between Iran and Turkey became more apparent. What is important is the impact of this crisis on the strategic position of these two regional powers. The research question is what impact did the fall of Assad have on the balance of power between Iran and Turkey in the Middle East and the geopolitical position of each? the research findings show the strengthening of Turkey's regional position, increasing influence in Syria along with playing a role in the formation of a new government, implementing economic and transit projects; In contrast, Iran's strategic position and regional influence decreased, which is reflected in the "reduction of strategic depth", the decline in bargaining power in the regional arena. These trends have led to the intensification of competition between Turkey and Iran (in Syria, Iraq and the Caucasus) and have placed their relationship in a competitive framework, leading to only limited cooperation.