فصلنامه امنیت پژوهی
پیاپی 66 (تابستان 1398)

The Syrian crisis, rather than being the result of internal political and social factors, was caused by the competition of important regional and international powers, which made it a battleground for a political settlement. In this regard, there are two outstanding regional actors, namely Israel and Saudi Arabia, whose policy toward the developments in Syria has been very important in terms of their specific impacts on the political-security equations of the region, as well as the interests and security of IRI. In a comparative context, the present article seeks to answer the main question of what policy Israel and Saudi Arabia has adopted regarding the Syrian crisis over the period 2011-2016. In response, the hypothesis raised that Israel and Saudi Arabia, despite their shared goal for weakening Syria as a country of the Axis of Resistance, had a contradictory approach to the future of the Syrian regime, how to intervene in it, and support for the terrorists. By applying the theoretical framework of neoclassical realism and adopting a comparative-hypothesis research strategy and a comparative-explanatory research method, this paper aims to answer the main question and test the respective hypothesis.

The present article seeks to answer the question of what are Russia’s goals of developing an arms trade with the West Asian region, and what will be the consequences of this policy for the region? The paper argues that Russia’s goals in this regard can be divided into two economic and geopolitical goals: economic goals specifically include obtaining financial benefits, especially with respect to Russia’s economic losses arisen from West’s sanctions and efforts to compensate for these losses. Geopolitical goals per se can be divided into four categories: efforts to confront US military unilateralism in the region, support for aligned and allied states in West Asia, efforts to revive the bankrupted states, as well as efforts to infiltrate traditional US allies with the aim of weakening the rival’s influence. The consequences of such policy for West Asia are primarily the expanded arms competition in the region and the increased likelihood of proxy wars. However, this trend could potentially become a source of stability for the long-term balance of power between US allies and anti-US states.

The outcome of the present research is the analysis of the Supreme Leader’s viewpoint on identity and the challenges arisen from it in the 4th decade of the Islamic Revolution as well as its effects on the social security of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Accordingly, with a review of the national thinkers’ works as to the achievement and explanation of the three-fold identity model of National identity, Islamic identity and Revolutionary identity, after quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the statements using the MAXQDA software, the challenges posed by various types of identities mentioned above on the ethnicity and security as a variable of social security were analyzed using the “Backward Induction” in his viewpoints. The research results include positive consequence and negative effects of challenges such as: Provoking the spirit of defending the national identity frontiers, the emergence of an independent national and religious identity among the people in the “Affirmative Dimension”, and the non-realization of all the excellent goals of the Islamic System in the pursuit of such ideals as social justice, eradication of poverty and cultural impediments and the establishment of a system of Islamic values-National identity in “Privative Dimension”.

One of the major goals of any political system is to protect the security of the nation against propaganda activities in cyberspace carried out with the aim of soft subversion and civil disobedience. There are provisions for this matter in Iran’s Penal Code. The purpose of the study is drawing the legislator’s attention to the importance of criminalizing such activities with respect to its background in cyberspace. The present research attempt to answer the fundamental question of what constitutes the basis of the crime of propaganda activities against the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran in cyberspace? The research results show that the legal basis of the propaganda activities against the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran in cyberspace is provided in Article 500 of the former Penal Code, 731 of the new Islamic Penal Code and 21 of the Cybercrime Law. Its material basis includes propaganda activity against the Islamic Republic or for the benefit of opposition groups and organizations while its virtual basis is general and specific bad faith, which means the deliberate intention to breach, subvert and undermine the governing system. Therefore, any propaganda activity in cyberspace, which undermines the security and dignity of the nation must be criminalized and punished

The present article aims to introduce the political and security functions of the government from the perspective of Khajeh Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. This article claims that the frameworks of military security in the Islamic philosophical works can be maintained in the national security system and be utilized in security studies. The outcome of this article is based on two functions of military security: First, the internal cohesion of the society and the preservation of unity (Taalof Awlia) through affectional bond between people, as well as the regulation of relations with the enemies, which is based on the strategy of the prevention of war and the creation of intelligent dominance. Second, the conflict with the enemy (Tanazo Aeda), which is formed in response to the enemy’s planning. Accordingly, the military doctrine of the “Imamiah” government is defensive, and all measures are taken with the aim of developing the defensive diplomacy based on friendship dialogue, and reducing the effects of enemies’ threats. Although policymakers do not neglect timely policymaking and decision-making for fighting and creating war conditions with enemies, the conflict with enemies and delayed war strategy is a defensive strategy, and the defensive approach is prioritized. This research utilizes a content analysis approach with documentary technique

With the development of the crisis in Syria, regional and trans-regional actors, and even some groups outside the country, have taken different orientations regarding this country. Meanwhile, the efforts of the opponents in Syria to overthrow the Syrian government, were among the obvious evidence of the crisis. However, due to some reasons, the adversaries failed and the Syrian government achieved a partial success in confronting them. In this regard, the question that raised is what’s the reason for the failure of the adversaries in Syria and the partial success of the Syrian government over the past years? The hypothesis that has been tested in this regard is that the roots of adversaries ‘failure in Syria rely on a combination of factors such as the degree of legitimacy and political acceptability of the government, the inefficiency of the social mobilization of the adversaries and the reaction of the army and international powers. The main purpose of the present paper, which has been done using descriptive-analytic method is to investigate the failure factors of the opponents in Syria and the reasons for the partial success of the Syrian government based on Goldstone’s theory