Strategic Studies Quarterly

Abstract The concept of national security is essentially a modern one which has gained meaning and significance with the formation of nation-state. National security studies are also a more recent field pertinent to the 20^th century. By the way, security should be regarded as an old and primordial category closely linked to human essence, and human beings looked at security as a ubiquitous friend even when they did not emerge as social beings. But with the lapse of time and change in human life and identity, the concept of security underwent a change. According to such presumptions, the main question of the writing is what developments have occurred in the security concept and what have been its parameters and characteristics in any historical period? This question can be answered according to the assumption of continuity or discontinuity in two historical or discursive ways. Taking advantage of mixed historical and discursive methods and assuming an evolutionary but interrupted change, the author argues that the security concept has passed four discursive changes according to specific historical periods and has experienced particular parameters and specifications. The main question of the writing is to address such an evolutionary (historical) change, while taking specific (discursive) parameters and traits of every period into consideration.

Abstract With the end of the Cold War and the growing importance of economic factors in the assessment of national capacity and security situation considerations have gained more importance in the analysis of the countries’ security conditions and the explanation of the security regime governing the international system. On this basis, this article aims at processing the national security parameters from the political economy perspective and studies various dimensions of the theoretical relationship and objective interaction between the countries’ national security policy and their economic capabilities. It also particularly tests the hypothesis that with the elevation of the status of political economy in the states’ national security, attention can be paid to ecopolitical analysis of national security along with realist or idealist analysis. Therefore, different aspects of such an analysis may be categorized as in the security role of current capital and security margin of indebted nations and the problem of investment, the impact of just distribution of revenues on social stability and security, change in the security and political treatment of regional and international contenders by rivals through economic and trade awards and punishments, the spread of aspects of structural violence in the international setting due to asymmetrical economic ties between the core and periphery of world economy and dual interaction of national wealth and military power. Hence, distinction between national security strategy as high politics and political economy considerations as low politics will be misguiding and scientifically invalid to make.

Abstract The way Shii jurisprudents encounter the usurper governments, which are all in theory illegitimate, is one of the important issues in the study of the process of change in Shii political thinking and practice. However, certain principles and foundations can be found in the thinking and practice of several Shii jurisprudents who have believed in particularization of this general verdict or specific reservations for the sake of public expedience of the society. The category of security may be mentioned as one of such factors which has gained more importance and weight among a number of jurisprudents and has led them to issue religious verdicts to the effect that to support and obey the monarch is permitted and necessary.The author has described this situation as the necessity of security which was notably expounded by such famous jurisprudents as Kashef ol-Qeta’ and Mirzay-e Qomi in the Qajar era. To explain this idea and its practical consequences, the author first explores how a gap emerged between two images of government in Islamic society. In this way, he outlines the background of the appearance of such a discussion and continues to introduce the principle of necessity of security using two active and passive approaches drawing on Sheikh Kashef ol-Qeta’ and Mirzay-e Qomi’s thinking and deeds.

Abstract Constructivist approach is among the recent approaches in social studies and international relations and nowadays efforts are made in order to examine the major issues of international politics including foreign policies of the states by using this approach. On this basis, unlike rationalist theories such as neo-realism and neo-liberalism which are based on rational choice theory, constructivism holds that the interests of actors and states, which regulate their conduct in foreign policy, are changing and in the process of construction. Change in them hinges on the change in the norms influential in political culture and identities of these actors. On this ground, mental milieus and their transformations such as the way leaders understand the international system, the states’ identity parameters, norms of the international system and moral issues shape the continuities and changes in this area rather than increased military power (in realism) or economic strength (in liberalism) are conducive to the states’ foreign conduct in the realm of international politics. Within this framework, this article argues that certain behaviors of the Islamic Republic of Iran in foreign policy are not compatible with rationalist and materialistic notions of interests, hence it seeks to analyze the Islamic Republic of Iran’s foreign policy from the constructivist perspective.

Abstract Universal expansion of transnational and international regimes including the human rights standards and democratic arrangements along with the broad interpretation of the UN Charter regarding the maintenance of world peace and security are among the most important consequences of globalization in the late decades of the 20^th Century. These are able to pose serious threats to and create opportunities for ethnic movements and multi-ethnic states.   On this basis, world regimes have gradually turned out into competitors for the basic rights and domestic systems remaining from the Westphalian model. More than to be an instrument for the execution of power and regulation of relations by the states, they are groundwork for the future identity coherence and proliferation of demands on part of the sub-national groups and ethnic movements.   This change can also indicate the weakening of the will to suppress ethnic minorities thus promoting the status of ethnic movements in the national and international milieus.   Such change in status is realized through intermediary variables such as the theoretical strength of identities, impact of the audience’s beliefs, emotional appeal of identities as well as the shift in power equations. This provides the grounds for ethnic movements to wield more appropriate and balanced theoretical leverage and practical opportunities in comparison to nation-states. This implies that the transnational globalized regimes have changed the status of ethnic movements and their identity-building sources in the early third millennium.

Abstract On the eve of the new century, security especially in European countries has received new significance and extended areas compared to traditional perception namely military security. This change mainly means that other areas of social and political relations have gained significance in security terms. On this basis, the development of security concept does not indicate the extension of military dimension to other spheres of international relations but signifies the flexibility of hardcore of security toward the new forms and dimensions of security-building. That is to say, the enlargement of the domain of security concept’s purview is a theoretical transformation which has occurred following international developments including the fall of the bipolar system and the end of the Cold War and has been founded upon the relationship between new concepts like soft security and security core. Conclusively, military aspect of security constitutes the hardcore of this concept and particular arenas of security like environmental security have surrounded it and made it flexible. Within this context, this article argues that a pluralist and broad interpretation of security concept takes shape according to communicative action and covers in its agenda questions like the scope of security, subject of security, agent of security and interpreter of security.