Investigating the Geopolitical Role of Energy in the National Security of Iran

According to the geo-economic approach to international relations and politics we can claim that energy constitutes the core of policies and strategies adopted by the large and industrial countries, the main pressure is on the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea littoral states to facilitate domination over their energy resources. What is important and promising is that, Iran, because of being located between these two marine bodies and possessing the second largest oil and gas reserves in the world, has become an important and effective role-player in the global geopolitical strategies. However, in the recent four decades, on the basis of its revolutionary, anti-Western doctrine and rentier economy, it has always faced concerted efforts by the opposing countries who intend to reduce its geopolitical weight and sovereign power and pose a constant national security threat to it. Therefore, it has inevitably taken a set of subsequent realistic, neo-realistic decisions and through mutual dependence for role-playing in energy geopolitics, it has been trying to tie its objectives, values and interests to the economy-oriented world and achieve its desirable national security. Therefore, with the purpose of investigating the role of energy geopolitics in the world and its impacts on Iran's national security, the present paper tries to answer the question that: what is the proportion of energy geopolitic's influence on the national security in the Islamic Republic of Iran? In this way, the results of the research test using descriptive analytical method and the codes of geopolitics, political sciences and international relations indicate that Iran, capitalizing on high geopolitical capacities in the region, through being located at the hub of the world's oil and gas production and transmission, and through its crucial role in the world's energy equations can gain a strategic and unparalleled geopolitical weight in the Middle East. However, following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, with the transformation of Iran's objectives, interests and values in its national security, as well as excessive dependency on the oil revenues and a rentier economy, the world countries have been working toward reducing the sovereign power and the geopolitical weight of Iran in the region. Through imposing sanctions on Iran's oil and gas sector, they have pushed for an absence of Iran's role-playing in the regional and global geopolitical developments. This leaves a direct impact on the national security or insecurity of the Islamic Republic of Iran.