Strategic Studies Quarterly

Abstract Strategic Studies in Iran has developed interacting with the socio-political developments at the national, regional and international levels, and changes in the factors have affected the formation and nature of the data. Given the knowledge-power relationship, the author argues that as a result of transforming the Pahlavi regime to the Islamic Republic at the national level, changing the Western Regional order to the nonwestern, and transformation of the international system from the Cold War to the post-Cold War era, has increased the possibility of formation and development of an indigenous Strategic Studies based on the Islamic-Iranian teachings than the past. In fact, studying the formation and evolution of Strategic Studies in Iran based on a Constructivist approach, the author is intended to show how, through the transformation of internal, regional and international relations of power, the ontological foundations of Strategic Studies in Iran and consequently, the epistemological and methodological foundations of the study has converted in a way to provide an indigenous approach on the field based on the Islamic-Iranian elements

Abstract Most of the scholars agree that the Modern Society has underwent a fundamental change and different terms, such as postmodern era, post-materialist society and so on has been used for characterizing this development. Abovementioned development, according to German sociologist Ulrich Beck, is not surpassing Modernity but is deepening of it. By coining the term of “risk society”, he tried to demonstrate that in late modern society, we have been facing the ubiquity of risk in every sphere of life and the vast knowledge of people regarding the risks. In that society, threats and risks are not in the form of natural disasters but are originated from the activities of human beings and technological developments.Any change in the threats and risks will be translated into the new policies, because one of the most important functions of politics is combating the threats.

Abstract As two paradigms, Human Security and Sustainable Development approaches, gained importance in the post-cold war era, with the leading role of UN organizations. Proposing these paradigms, suggests that the scholars and researchers had observed some inconsistencies in the former paradigms of security studies. Then in a near look, this becomes evident that these paradigms criticize the similar subjects (such as state-centred strategies for obtaining security and overlooking the true needs of human beings, neglecting the environmental dimension of security and rights of future generations) and propose some similar guidelines(giving priority to human individual in the evaluating and preparing the list of threats, focusing on protecting the Environment and its importance in the securing the health and security for human beings and the well-being and the life quality of future generations, taking into consideration the newer threats, especially threats of the global scale, and paying attention to the political arena and participation, poverty and threats it causes).   Then, it can be argued that, there will be many overlaps and similarities between two paradigms, among others these paradigms rest on common tenets (society, economy and environment), although with some nuances in emphases. In this paper, after investigating the content of two paradigms, the lessons that these two can learn from each other will be discussed and it will argued that according the aforementioned arguments , these two can be merged in a comprehensive and single paradigm which probably will be called “Sustainable Human Security” paradigm.

Abstract It would be preciously necessity to examining more the essential constituent of nature of security studies inIran. In regard to the necessary and for focusing security conception or a sense of need to it and security studies in one side, and the difference between security studies in Iran and Iranian security studies in the other side, the paper is reviewing the history of shaping security studies in Iran so that finding and analyzing the problems and challenges in them. Security studies inIranfor being an independent realm need to emancipating from three dependencies such as the conceptually, the scientifically, the thoughtfully.

Abstract Conceptual overlapping among security, politics and strategy was ever caused to meaning uncertainty of security studies and its dependency to political, strategic and international relations studies, too. Here, for transparency and solving of this conceptual overlapping, author is trying to be taking under questioning the presuppositions of strategic, political and international relations studies such as likeness of concept of security and security studies, coming in to existence of security after politics, strategy and international relations, and to be more limited scope of security studies. Besides the reviewing these presuppositions, this article, by genealogy perspective, is trying to evidence the boundaries of the security studies related to political, strategic and international relations realm, and representing the evolution of it.

Abstract The relationship between security, politics and strategy has frequently been subject to academic debates and the demarcation of boundaries among these concepts and the contours of their study areas are the result of such academic debates and contentions. In this article, the author examines the historical grounds of change in the aforementioned concepts and analyzes their mutual relationship according to four traditional, meta-traditional, modern and postmodern discourses in order to explain part of ambiguities and complexities of the concept of security. Indeed, dependence of the security concept on concepts of politics and strategy and the overlapping of security studies area with areas of political and strategic studies – as the fundamental assumption in the existing literature of security studies – is challenged in the writing. In answering the question of what relationship exists between the concept of security and concepts of politics and strategy in terms of time sequence, the author tests the hypothesis that there is no time sequence between the concepts of security, politics and strategy and that historical-discursive change in such concepts indicates their coincidence.