Strategic Studies Quarterly

Abstract Postmodern scholars have developed three following statements and thus affected the method of cognition and study of social relations: First, perception of the world as the text and the necessity of interpreting it; second, basing knowledge on power and historical nature of truth; and third, distrust in meta-narratives. With the three above statements, the positivist presumptions and even positivist achievements were seriously challenged, because according to positivist observational experience, first the world was regarded as reality containing truth, second knowledge was achieved independently devoid of power relations, and third there is a universal code of rules and laws that is beyond time and space. Examining the important points in postmodern understanding, this article seeks to answer the question which relation exists between the study of strategic issues and recognizing the meaning and criteria of security and the methodological findings of postmodernism. On this basis, "the postmodern method of analysis rejects the legitimacy of modernity and its achievements, but it fails to propose any alternative on how to relieve of modern insecurity. The result of this incomplete view is the distrust of people and groups in the sources of power and prevalent interpretations of truth."

Abstract This article seeks to highlight the importance of social capital in good governance and its fragility and vulnerability to the state conduct and actions. Social capital is the cornerstone of the affluent society and efficient government. It is in the shadow of the maintenance, enforcement and accumulation of this valuable resource that society can benefit from the achievements of development and good governance. Hence, not only the state has to assess the consequences of its actions on social capital, but also it needs to provide a trustful social environment which makes confidence, willingness to keep promises, will to cooperation and assistance and entering the social networks meaningful and useful for the members of society. The author believes that by adjusting or removing such deficiencies as dysfunction in allocation, organizational recession, agency problem, corruption in public sector, and possible tensions and conflicts between politicians and bureaucrats, as well as reinforcing internal oversight, social capital provides the possibility for better supply of public management goods. On the one hand, the government can pave the way for the production of social capital through individual, social and institutional betterment, and preparing a trustful social environment, and on the other hand it may contribute to its destruction through weakening the constructive sources of social capital.

Abstract Social security is one of the most important measures in the way of preserving the livelihood of social groups vis-à-vis the supreme and exclusive authority as represented by the state. It also provides ground for the enjoyment of opportunities, possibilities and facilities by various social groups in order to attain their functional objectives. This article has studied types of security and social requirements with respect to social security. Examining distinct characteristics of conceptual contours of social security, national security and public security, the article explores the possibility of replacement of national security with social security. On this basis, the realization of social security leads to the opening of doors of solidarity and increased interactions among social groups and strata thus creating a more open social atmosphere. Although social security was initially proposed with the intention of creating security for large religious and ethnic groups which played a role at the transnational and international levels, it lacks, in brief, the necessary mechanisms as an alternative to national security.

Abstract The sociopolitical conditions of the Muslim World took shape in the Medieval Ages when security became the main concept in the justification of overcoming and domination politics. In this period, various schools of thought appeared due to sociopolitical requirements which shared the idea of justifying absolute government according to the concept of security and necessity of removing anarchy. Such conception of politics and government became so extreme that the main principles emphasized by Islam in politics such as justice, equality, and morality were fully marginalized. In this article, examining the grounds and causes of this situation, major characteristics of dominant perception of security are explored and the opinions of a number of thinkers like Imam Moahmmad Ghazzali, Ibn Valid Tartoushi and Khajeh Nazam ul-Mulk are analyzed. As the author argues, the Islamic though in the Middle Ages gave absolute authority to Sultan in order to establish order either in the framework of Siasat-Nameh or Shariat-Nameh. It considered the preservation of religion as an important aspect of establishing security as possible through this authority. Therefore, although Sultan was not legitimate according the religious texts, the Ulema obliged people to obey him for the sake of preservation of religion.

Abstract Geopolitics of gas has opened a new chapter in international relations in which centers of production, consumption and transit routes of energy as well as influential trans-regional powers are considered. As the world's second biggest country possessing gas reserves, Iran can greatly affect strategic relationships in energy sector if it develops an agenda based on geopolitics. Thus it can find the value for establishing strategic relationships. In this regard, the hegemonic power has made all efforts in order to manage the Persian Gulf's regional affairs, and every of the regional political units which adopts a confrontational position towards the hegemonic power will be pressurized. The existing evidence demonstrates that Iran is valued simply in a non-competitive international milieu for non-hegemonic powers. India’s increasing need to gas energy as a non-hegemonic power has provided Iran with a strategic chance; however numerous (regional and trans-regional) parameters have challenged the transit of Iran’s gas to that country. The author holds that in the case of the formulation of an agenda based upon geopolitical location, Iran can secure its national interest in the utilization of existing opportunities.

Abstract This article deals with the thought bases of Islamic fundamentalism. In fact, the main question is what constitutes Islamic fundamentalism and which parameters and statements it has. According to the author’s hypothesis, Islamic fundamentalism as an ideology is characterized with particular parameters, statements and thought-political foundations making it distinct from other prevalent mainstream ideologies in the 20^th century including liberalism, socialism, nationalism and alike. In spite of its multiplicity in theory and practice in the Muslim World, Islamic fundamentalism shares certain thought and political foundations including comprehensiveness and inclusiveness of Islamic religion, linkage between religion and politics, need to return to the original precepts of Islam, establishment of Islamic government, as well as pragmatism and having a practical plan and strategy for transition from undesirable non-Islamic conditions to desirable Islamic conditions. In this sense, the author considers fundamentalism as tantamount to al-Osuliah in the opinions of such Islamists as Yusof Gharzavi, Rachid al-Ghanoochi and Hassan al-Banna and examines its relationship with such concepts as Islamic awakening and religious reformism. On this ground, Islamic fundamentalism presents a new interpretation of relationship among human, god and society in contradiction to the modern version in order to secure worldly and other-worldly happiness of human being.    

Abstract Examining the phenomenon of globalization and efforts to explain the phenomenon, this article addresses challenges and opportunities faced with by political Islam in the new circumstances. The author considers discourse analysis as the suitable approach to this study. On this basis, he believes that instead of construing globalization as a single discourse, the image of globalization as the new situation of discourse struggle enjoys further ability for explanation. From this point of view, what becomes global is the struggle of discourses, thus discourses seek to give meaning to globalization and understand it according to its classification so that it becomes the dominant discourse. In this regard, political Islam can be also viewed as a discourse whose central claim is to revive Islamic identity in the area of political practice. Hence in the atmosphere of globalization, political Islam can act as the supreme guide and ultimate word by calling for an identity based upon centrality of Islam vis-à-vis other identities like Western modernism. Indeed, because of its concentration on material-spiritual life and weakening of spiritual aspects of human life, modernism suffers from the crisis of meaning and is threatened by loss of discursive dominance.