A study of the political geography and geopolitical situation in Iran

The present paper studies the mutual effects of politics and power on the geographical environment, that is to say, the effects of the political decisions on geographical environment. To do so, after explaining the procedure of the formation and the vicissitudes of the history of political geography in the world, the paper concentrates on conditions of political geography in Iran. Geography, especially military geography, in Iran first came into focus in 1931 with a book called The Comprehensive Geography of Iran written by Mas’ood Keihan. But, the founder of political geography and geopolitics as a discipline is Dr. Mir-Heidar who wrote The Principles of Political Geography in 1968. Tarbiat Modarres University’s measure to initiate a Ph.D. program in political geography in 1987 is a turning point in the history of the discipline in Iran. This encouraged other universities to set up the program at different levels. Since the 90s the discipline ascended to its peak in Iran. The paper also focuses on the conditions of political geography departments in the Iranian universities and on the future perspective, the capabilities, and the predicaments of political geography.