جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « the middle east » در نشریات گروه « علوم سیاسی »

The geopolitical dynamics of the Middle East have always been influenced by the competition among global powers, particularly the United States and China. This study aims to analyze how the US-China rivalry from 2010 to 2022 has impacted Iran's national security. The region's strategic significance and its vast energy resources make it a focal point for these powers, each seeking to expand their influence. Iran, as a key player in the Middle East, finds its security and political landscape significantly affected by this rivalry. The research hypothesizes that the competition between the US and China affects Iran's national security in three main domains: military/security, political, and economic, with both positive and negative impacts.

This research adopts an explanatory method, relying on extensive library and documentary data to dissect the multi-faceted impacts of US-China competition on Iran's national security. The study involves a thorough review of historical and contemporary sources to establish a comprehensive understanding of the geopolitical strategies employed by the US and China in the Middle East and their repercussions on Iran. The analysis is structured to address the competition in the specified domains, offering a detailed examination of each domain to discern the dual effects on Iran's security framework.

The findings reveal a complex interplay of influences stemming from the US-China rivalry. In the military/security domain, the competition has generally been detrimental to Iran's national security. Increased US military presence and alliances in the region pose direct threats to Iran, while China's military engagements offer limited but notable strategic support to Iran, such as joint military maneuvers and arms sales. However, China's broader military relations with other regional actors like Saudi Arabia and Israel introduce significant security dilemmas for Iran. Economically, the US's efforts to isolate Iran through sanctions have been countered to some extent by China's continued economic engagements with Iran, including the 25-year cooperation agreement. Nevertheless, China's extensive economic ties with Iran's regional rivals diminish these benefits and perpetuate the economic vulnerabilities due to continued and even reinforced US sanctions. Politically, the situation is somewhat more favorable for Iran. China's refusal to align with US policies aimed at isolating Iran, such as opposing additional sanctions in the United Nations, provides Iran with crucial diplomatic support. Additionally, China's support for the Assad regime in Syria aligns with Iran's strategic interests in the region, reinforcing Iran's influence in the Levant. However, the growing US-Arab-Israeli rapprochement, facilitated by the Abraham Accords, and the US's emphasis on human rights issues against Iran complicate Iran's geopolitical stance.

The US-China competition in the Middle East significantly impacts Iran's national security. Militarily and economically, the rivalry presents more threats than opportunities, primarily due to US actions aimed at containing Iran and China's balanced approach to regional partnerships. Politically, however, the competition offers Iran some leverage, as China's opposition to US-led initiatives provides Iran with critical support. Understanding these dynamics is essential for Iran to navigate its foreign policy and security strategies effectively amidst the ongoing great power rivalry. This research underscores the need for a nuanced approach in analyzing the impacts of global geopolitical competitions on regional actors like Iran, highlighting the dual nature of these influences across different domains.

In the common literature in the field of tax corruption study, the most common form of corruption is in the form of taxpayers hiding from paying taxes or avoiding paying taxes through fighting with tax officials. However, there is a more destructive form of tax corruption, which is legal tax corruption. In this form of tax corruption, evading taxes in an illegitimate way, but through exerting influence on the approval of laws and applying tax exemptions, is Iran's war between a minority of people with power and wealth in front of the rest of the citizens. Apparently, this type of legal corruption, but inside it is completely against the spirit and philosophy of the law. In the Middle East countries, the tax issue has become a complicated situation due to the rentier nature of most of the countries in the region. While in the current approach to governance in all parts of the world, taxes are considered as the main source of providing welfare expenses for citizens in certain areas (education, public health, support for the vulnerable, and providing infrastructure), the rich oil income in the region is considered the other has created taxes and welfare expenses and as a result tax corruption. The efforts of the countries of the region to overcome the oil economy and rentierism are faced with requirements in the field of determining and collecting taxes, dealing with tax corruption and providing public welfare, which lack of proper management The possibility of political instability in this will maximize countries

Some scholars believe that many of 2010-2015 upheavals in the Middle East are revolutions. However, if we define the revolution in a delicate and traditional meaning and draw off the variety of instability, it isn’t possible to call them revolutions except a few numbers with lots of doubts. But, most of researchers believe that the risk of revolution has always been high and because of this, the its perpetual attention and research is necessary. The Coup d’état is another upheaval which, notwithstanding the revolution, has been taken place a lot. The problem is that some of the Middle East’s Coup d’états tend to absorb the elements of revolution. So, the separating line between the revolution and Coup d’état often become pale. The matter emphasizes researching of it. Among different questions, the reasons of their occurrence have always been an important question. The article by reviewing the Arabic Middle East from 1992 to 2015 and by using the opinions of Iranian experts and the Fuzzy Delphi, found 6 and 4 general and key factors of happening revolution and Coup d’état respectively. These are only 20% of all factors, but have an 80% influence on the happening of it. The matter has functional advantages since time and financial limitations for actors prevent them to control all the factors effectively. So, governmental and non-governmental actors are searching key factors to reduce costs and achieve the most efficiency.

In the contemporary world, the developments in the Middle East are among the most extensive and profound developments in the political structure of the countries in the region. Syria, as one of the countries in the region, which has been going on for several years. Iran and Turkey, as two regional countries, have been involved in this crisis from the beginning and are trying to control Syria with the aim of changing the political map and balance of power in the Middle East. Efforts to do this have led them to unprecedented competition based on ideological and identity variables. Turkey and Iran are among the regional actors that have taken an active approach to these developments in their own interests. The Syrian crisis has revealed the clash of strategic interests between Turkey and Iran. The two countries are pursuing opposing policies in the Syrian crisis. This article examines the causal relationship between the regional strategies of Turkey and Iran as an independent variable and the contradictory policies of the two countries in the Syrian crisis as a dependent variable. The purpose of this study is to obtain the role of the regions of Turkey and Iran by considering the conflicting policies of these two countries using game theory in the Syrian crisis. In this article, using modeling game theory (zero-sum game), the necessary analysis of strategies and policies implemented by two countries that have conflicting goals in Syria has been examined.

Undoubtedly, the Arab unrest in 2010, which started in Tunisia and spread to other Arab states in a short time, is considered a turning point in the political history of Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa. These measures, which started with the overthrow of some Arab countries such as Tunisia and Egypt, gradually led to civil wars, proxy battles of powerful countries, and even the withdrawal of troops from neighboring countries by some governments, with the extensive and diverse interference of other regional and extra-regional countries. The process of these changes and the resulting results have always been more important for the countries of the southern border of the Persian Gulf, or in more appropriate terms, the governments of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council, which include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman. Because the commonalities and similarities in various political, economic, and cultural fields among the member states of the Council and the fear of unrest spreading within their political borders have caused the above countries to take measures to prevent such a thing. In the meantime, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, due to various reasons such as size, population, foreign exchange earnings, inherent characteristics of leaders, and regional competition, seek their desired changes in the context of regional trends more than others. These two countries, in addition to the deep commonalities and sense of brotherhood they have among themselves, are always involved in competition with each other for various reasons, such as maintaining the balance of power, especially on the part of the UAE, the authoritarian leadership of both countries, and territorial disputes left over from the colonial era. includes It is from this point of view that the convergence and divergence between these two countries is important in the shadow of the new developments in the Middle East region.Methodology is always considered a function of the theory used in scientific and research works, on this basis and with the theory used in this work, an attempt will be made to explain the methodology of the present writing to the reader. The category of security is one of the fields of study that, despite a long history for mankind, a significant period has not passed since its systematization as an academic discipline. In this work, according to the use of Stephen Walt's threat balance theory and the need-to-know concepts such as power, size, population, economic capabilities, as well as geography, offensive capabilities and hostile intentions, the methodology of this article is a combination of methods Quantitative and qualitative crosswise. In other words, some areas such as the economy area can be analyzed through quantitative methods of contract analysis and based on this, the security and competitive status of actors can be analyzed. While in some other areas such as social security, and freedom of expression, intentions and behavioral characteristics of leaders cannot be investigated simply and based on quantitative methods; In this case, using the qualitative method and paying attention to the intentions of the actors is more prominent. Considering the political characteristics of the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the simultaneous use of quantitative and qualitative methods leads the readers of the present work to a correct understanding of the relations between these two actors.According to the studies conducted on the intergovernmental relations between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the existence of internal differences between the above countries regarding various regional issues clearly shows that these governments, despite all the political, economic, and cultural commonalities, at the same time in dealing with the issues and The problems that arise in the field of foreign policy have national and sometimes personal implications, which is why they sometimes try to take parallel and even opposing actions. It is worth noting that these measures appear and appear more from the side of the smaller country, the United Arab Emirates, in front of the Saudi government, because Saudi Arabia always considers itself the leader of the Arab countries and expects support from other members of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council. ; It was for this reason that he reacted militarily to the changes in Bahrain and economically to Qatar to prove to everyone that he is not indifferent to the developments in the Arab countries around him, especially the governments of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council, and that his interference in He considers their affairs as a natural matter and a reserved right for himself. In the meantime, according to the approach they have drawn for themselves in the field of foreign politics, the Emirati rulers are always trying to maintain their independence and balance of power against this larger government while accompanying the Saudi government in various regional issues, in addition to protecting themselves from The flames of anger of the Al Saud rulers also promote their national and family interests, which is evident in the UAE's behavior in Yemen and diplomatic relations with Iran and Syria.The new order of West Asia, which is the result of the great changes caused by the Arab events of 2010, showed more than ever the continuity and intertwining of the Arab states of the region, especially the states of the Persian Gulf. These governments, which have come together in the framework of a regional organization such as the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council, led by Saudi Arabia and with the support of the other pillar of the council, the United Arab Emirates, are sensitive to the spread of waves of Arab unrest to the territories under their rule and any movement in this direction They have suffocated sperm. This cooperation, which has been established over the years and especially between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, is more than anything due to the sharing of their broad interests in regional dimensions. Regardless of the inherent characteristics of their ambitious leaders, both the Saudi and UAE governments have converged on various issues such as the unrest in Bahrain, the war in Syria, and the battle in Yemen due to the sense of competitiveness with each other and the need to balance power against Iran. However, during this period, they have diverged and split, especially concerning the manner of diplomatic relations with Iran and Bashar Assad's government in Syria, as well as how to manage the war in Yemen. Of course, it should be noted that the role of the United Arab Emirates in the emergence of divergence with the Saudi government is more colorful because maintaining the balance between the two powerful countries of Iran and Arabia on both sides of the Persian Gulf, as well as maintaining independence and achieving special political-economic interests in the pursuit of regional issues It is of special importance for the Bin Zaid family in the UAE.

The strategic competition between the United States and China, which had already begun, has become more serious since the beginning of the second decade of the new millennium. This strategic competition, which has had a major influence on US Indo-Pacific policy, has promoted Washington's strategic shift to the Pacific region. To balance China in East Asia, Washington has significantly reduced its presence in many regions of the world, including the Middle East and Europe, and focused on the Indo-Pacific region. This paper aims to examine the impact of strategic competition between the United States and China on US Indo-Pacific policy.The paper seeks to answer this question: how strategic US-China competition has affected U.S. Indo-Pacific policy, regional competition, and Iranian activism? The main hypothesis of this paper is that the US-China strategic competition has led the US to shift its policy focus from West Asia to the Indo-Pacific region and coalitions to prevent China's seizure of power and expand its sphere of influence, and increase regional competition and sinusoidal tensions between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States in the Middle East.The methodology used for this paper is qualitative with a descriptive-analytical approach. Library and internet sources are used to collect data and attempt to analyze the sources as well as check the hypothesis theory.

In Syria and Yemen, the apparent power of ethnic and religious groups has led to civil war, rooted in the identity issues of these societies. Under the consensus cultural variable is the component of identity, which is one of the main factors and the foundation of the so-called Arab Spring developments. The majority of Arab societies suffer from the lack of national identity due to the plurality of ethnic and religious groups, which puts some groups in a superior political position and pushes others to the margins. Identity is at the top of the Arab developments, and other factors are placed below it. Even the difference in the process of developments in these societies is due to the identity issue. The aim of this research is to investigate the role of identity in the formation, results, and trends of recent developments in the Arab Middle East using constructivism in a descriptive and analytical way. The article's main question is, "What effect has the identity and identitarianism of ethnic and religious groups of Arab societies had on the formation and process of recent developments of these societies?" The findings indicate that the social structure of most Arab societies is very plural. Muslim groups in Arab countries are not cohesive, and there are many religious sects that fuel the religious divide of these societies. The biggest gap is between Shia and Sunni. The difference in the fundamentals of the belief principles of the various Sunni sects has led to their identity split. The Brotherhood, Salafism, and radical fundamentalism are the most effective identity discourses of the Sunni sect, which, along with the Shiites, try to spread their intellectual values and norms in Arab societies. The most prominent ethnic divide is related to the Kurdish ethnicity, which in countries such as Syria and Iraq pursue a different identity from the Arab ethnic groups due to their cultural values. Due to the lack of common norms in Arab societies, a common identity has not been formed in these countries, and we are facing a plurality of identities that are rooted in contradictions and conflicts. This is why during the Arab developments, three groups of fundamentalists, Shiites, and Kurds have become highly active in the analysis of identity action, and it is not possible to solve the crises of these societies without considering their demands.
When the political units do not pay attention to the intellectual, perceptive, normative, and identity components of the citizens, it is natural that conflicts between the government and the society will be created. This is what has been objectified in the Arab societies of the Middle East. The Arab totalitarian governments, by creating a fence around themselves, have actually limited the political and economic structure to their families and those around them and do not care about other peoples.
Therefore, what was formed in the Arab Middle East in 2011 cannot be unrelated to the ethnic-religious intellectual and normative patterns of this region. Even the trends and differences in the developments of Arab societies are not unrelated to the plural identity of these societies. The more cohesive the country is in terms of social structure, the faster the social movement ends, and we do not witness civil war or the presence of other countries in the course of the developments of these societies. A clear example of that is Egypt and Tunisia, where the overthrow of the governments resulted in relative peace in a short period of time. The lack of active ethnic-religious identities and their relatively coherent social structure caused the shortness of the transition period, low violence, and non-intervention of other countries in the course of the developments of these societies. However, identity pluralism in some societies such as Syria, Yemen, and to some extent Libya pushed the developments in another direction. In these societies, the depth of the identity difference is such that none of the parties backed down from their position, and the protests progressed towards civil war and widespread crisis. The identity and ideological war stemming from dry religious interpretations led to widespread violence in societies such as Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The presence of active identity groups in the developments of these societies followed the reaction of transnational actors in the field of supporting identity groups close to them, which ultimately results in the prolongation of the crisis and proxy wars.

In 2020 The United States played an outstanding role in reaction to Iran's increasing activity in the post-Arab uprising 2011 in the Middle East by an intermediary between the United Arab Emirates and Israel and normalizing the relations of these two regional allies within the Abraham Accords. What is Iran’s regional role in the attitude of United States as a mediator in signing the Abraham Accords now is the fundamental question.

This study use the theoretical framework of balancing power theory, and attempt to mixed method of descriptive, analytical and historic looking for analysis role and relation between the US and members of the accord, especially Israel and the UAE.

In order to get the countries into this accord, the US made suggestions for each of them. The UAE was looking for commercial benefits, especially buying F-35. Bahrain wants to have US support against Iran. Sudan, which has been on the US and EU sanction list since 1998, could satisfy the US for additional foreign aid and paying its debt in the World Bank. To get morocco, Donald Trump recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara.

The US able to take a step in 2020 as a key actor in revealing the hidden relations between the UAE and Israel due to the close political-economic relations, years before this accord. In other words, the US strengthens its allies in the direction of a balancing force against Iran and once again redesigns its balancing approach by assigning its responsibility to its regional partners.

The present study was conducted with the aim of influencing the US-Saudi political-military relationship on the security order in the Middle East. In this research, the method and tool of data analysis is descriptive-analytical. The Middle East is important in terms of political geography, strategic geography and economic geography, and the existence of such components has made the Middle East order and security always on the US agenda in the post-World War II era. Saudi-US relations will have a major impact on the security order in the region. With the power vacuum and the expansion of the anarchic situation in the Middle East, each of the influential actors in the region, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel, are developing their military capabilities. Turkey has already sought to increase its political and economic position in the Persian Gulf, South Asia, the Middle East, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Central Asia and the Caucasus. The new US-Saudi alliance was formed between 2017 and 2020 with the aim of establishing a new order in the Middle East.

The Middle East” is a controversial concept in terms of politics and geography. From a geographical point of view, there is no broad consensus on the borders of the Middle East. Also, there have been challenges in the use and application of the Middle East concept given the new theories to pay attention to the non-Western world. There have been challenges in applying this concept. To counter the monotony of European and American research and studies in the Middle East, instead of the concept of "Middle East", equations such as "Near East and North Africa", "North Middle East", "New Middle East", "Islamic Middle East", "Arab Middle East" "West Asia", and "Southwest Asia" are suggested instead. The main question of this article is "What is the reason for the inevitability of using this concept in all languages of the region, including Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and even Hebrew?" "Why can't the conceptual equivalents and proposed alternatives succeed in conveying the same meaning that the Middle East concept conveys?"  This research aims to answer why the concept of “the Middle East” cannot be left by focusing on the political issue and from the history of concepts method and theory view. The nature of “the political” emphasizes binary confrontations which confirms the fact of existing a stream of the battle between the political forces and group dominant on conversations in concepts forms. Although in this region criticize the hegemony of concepts such as the Middle East, and advocate for alternatives, the political irresistibility against geography is an important obstacle that complicates the use of alternative concepts of the Middle East.

Between the Fourth and Fifth Crusades, a children's movement was formed by Christian youth from Germany and France to seize Jerusalem from Muslims. Historical sources from that time are not provided for a complete and comprehensive analysis of it, and even the largest and most complete encyclopedias and scientific works of history have dealt with it or references it or briefly. Many historians are skeptical of its occurrence, even if they are all children. Now the question is, is this war only for children? What were the causes of this move and the results? In fact, the purpose of this article is to analyze children's crusade and its causes and causes. This research is one of the historical researches that has been used by the method of explanation to collect the required information and an attempt has been made to obtain the necessary bases for an analytical explanation of the subject. According to the findings of the article, components such as corporate motivations, the situation in medieval Europe and the passion of the Crusades can be named as the main reasons for the Children's Crusade, which had consequences such as the fall of the Pope and the beginning of the Fifth Crusade. . This incident represents the explosion of the strata that want to get rid of the current situation. It was also proved that the people had no role in killing these people.

Israel's 33-day war against Hezbollah in 2006 from its earliest days, Not only did it intensify the conflict inside Lebanon between the forces for and against Hezbollah,but also a field for the conflicting interests of different countries. This war has been the focus of global attention due to its internal, regional and international complexities. The main question is: what are the Causes and the factors of Hezbollah victory in the 33-day war?In this article, uses descriptive-analytical method and library information collection method by examining the truth and factorsof Hezbollah victory in the 33-day war in 2006 based on Michael Bercher's crisis management model and using components The quadruple of this model (with emphasis on the third stage) has analyzed the desired data.The results of this article show that Israel,the full assistance of the United States and international nstitutions, pursues material and spiritual goals such as the disarmament of Hezbollah; the dissolution of Hezbollah and its complete domination of Lebanon and establishment of a like-minded government in Lebanon to advance the new US Middle East plan,The most important factor in Hezbollah Lebanon's victory in the 33-day war, according to the third phase of Michael Bercher's model, was the innovation of the asymmetric method of warfare, which prevented Israel from achieving its goals.

Today by media development, governments, groups and even ideologies equip themselves with the latest media technologies in the news transmission. They try to expand the depth of their influence among human societies, and use their influence in a wide area of interested regions. Therefore, the media can reflect current realities in the framework of their interested purposes in internal, regional and international dimensions by influencing public opinions. In recent years, a large amount of destructive advertisement from dependent media which they don’t have ideology, has shaped against Shiites particularly in the Middle East. These media introduce Shiites as terrorist group and rough individuals, and try to change world public opinion towards them. The purpose of this research is to study the role of national media in convergence and unity of Shiites in the Middle East region. Energy resources besides critical situation in the Middle east, in one hand,, and the presence of Israel regime and its permanent threat with theory of from Nile to Euphrates on the other hand, lead to the necessity of Muslims’ convergence particularly Shiites in this region. Results of this research show that national media could create convergence and unity among Shiites, and enhance their spiritual morale and obtain the trust of public opinion with emphasis on resistance against any oppression and cruelty via presenting existence realities.

Since elleven septamber, NATO has been one of the most important intervening actors in the region and has played a decisive role in its security structure. Therefore, the expansion of NATO territory in the Middle East is through the admission of new members within the framework of US security goals and the desired security order in the Middle East. This situation can create different scenarios in the security field of the geography around Iran, which will certainly be a threat and threat to the presence of NATO for the Islamic Republic of Iran. The question is, what effect does NATO's military strategy in the Middle East have on the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran? It seems that NATO's presence in the Middle East is to fill the power vacuum in the region, and NATO's long-term presence around the borders of the Islamic Republic of Iran reduces the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Middle East. The above research is of analytical-fundamental type, with a descriptive-analytical approach and a qualitative-interpretive method. The method of collecting research data has also been done through library studies. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of NATO presence on the security approach of the Islamic Republic after elleven septamber.

Moscow’s military intervention in Syria crisis follows Russia’s geostrategic profits in The Middle East. Syria crisis has formed a new shape to the kind of interaction between Russia and international and local actors. So that Russia’s strategy has been an attempt to form balance of power among powers in Syria from 2015 now on. On the other hand, competition among local actors in Syria to create hegemonic superiority in The Middle East, has provided balancing policy background from Syria to prevent form the emergence of a local hegemony. So that the contradictory alignment and approaches of the involved actors, has created a kind of proximity and companionship with Russia to balance against each other. A proximity through which Russia has balanced power with all actors besides rejecting any strategic alliance. Regarding such considerations, there appears a question that what are the features of Russia’s balance of power policy in Syria crisis? The hypothesis which has been used in the present study is that Russia has selected balance of power policy as the most efficient approach in confrontation with international and local actors in Syria crisis in order to achieve her purposes and to reinforce her position.

This study seeks to analyze the effects of the colonial nation-state project on the emergence of new states in Middle East and its impact on recent Middle East crises.Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire,the new Middle East governments emerged.These emerging states were born with the involvement of the colonial powers of the time in determining geopolitical and political boundaries.This colonial division,irrespective of the demographic context of the region,made these governments themselves the center of crisis in the Middle East.One of the consequences of this was the creation of very shaky social faults,which have appeared in the area of ​​revisionist reactions to the order at the national level.In fact, three obstacles to Pan-Arabism,Pan-Islamism, and finally to Kurds in recent decades have paved the way for the state-building of the nation-state in the Middle East.Contrary to European trends,the Middle East has never allowed these three barriers to institutionalized nationhood,resulting in the emergence of crisis at various levels of government born from the borders of the Ottoman Empire in the years following World War I.It is noteworthy that the present research is a descriptive-analytical method and a general outline of state-nation-building has been presented using theories of state-nation-building to generalize the research

The low level of political development of Muslim countries involved in the phenomenon of terrorism in the Middle East region means the illegitimacy of the ruling regimes and the reduction of popular political participation with public dissatisfaction.Which has a great impact on the occurrence of political violence and makes terrorist activities an attractive option for the people of that society. The main purpose of this study, while examining the underlying causes of political underdevelopment of Muslim countries in the Middle East, is to analyze the role of terrorism as one of the most important components of underdevelopment in these countries. The present article is methodical, descriptive and analytical and based on the model of the theories of thinkers such as: Samuel Huntington and Lucien Pai as two thinkers in the discussion of the development of countries has been used in combination as a theoretical framework. The findings of this study indicate that the diverse and multi-ethnic structure, religious and mosaic nature of these societies and incomplete and artificial nation-building are important and influential factors in the formation and development of terrorism and terrorism with Creating effective infrastructural challenges and barriers complicates the process of political development in the Muslim countries of the Middle East. Political development is a fundamental change in the political beliefs of individuals and institutions of these countries, the presuppositions of which are changes in culture, economy and society. Changes in the mentioned areas become a factor for changing or consolidating the political area.