فصلنامه بین المللی ژئوپلیتیک
سال پانزدهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 55، پاییز 1398)

Geopolitics developed in the late of 19th century and the first half of 20th century with some theories that focused mainly on the role of geographic space in world power and strategies, so today these theories form an important part of geopolitical history and literature, and accurate study and recognition of geopolitics is not possible without the exact study and recognition of these theories. Therefore, study, evaluation, analysis and critique of geopolitical theories have become an integral part of geopolitical studies. In this regard, the present research evaluates and explains the status of applied recommendations in classic geopolitical theories (1875 to 1945).

Geopolitics of classic era started from the late of 19th century and ended by the end Second World War, namely the years between 1875 and 1945. In this period, two trends emerged: one originated from the common social Darwinism in this period, with the German Friedrich Ratzel being as its forerunner. In his article titled “The Laws of the Spatial Growth of States” (1896) and the book “Political Geography” (1897) and in his other works, he proposed the theory of “Organic State” and claimed that “In the state we are dealing with an organic nature. And nothing contradicts the nature of the organic more than does rigid circumscription.” Another trend was based more on geographic facts and the policies affected by the geographical conditions that were often called geostrategy. Theories of “Sea Power,” “The Geographical Pivot of History,” and “Rimland” are also related to this trend. The American “Alfred Thayer Mahan” in 1890 published the book “The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783” and presented the theory of “sea power,” claiming that “the use and control of the sea is and has been a great factor in the history of the world.” Following this and with the advent of the transcontinental railroad age, British “Sir Halford J. Mackinder” in 1904 presented the theory of “the geographical pivot of history.” In 1919, having added a large part of  Eastern Europe to the “Pivot Area,” he called it “Heartland”, claiming that “Who controls eastern Europe rules the Heartland; who rules the Heartland rules the World Island; and who rules the World Island rules the World.” Following Mackinder, American Nicholas J. Spykman presented the Rimland theory in 1943 in “The Geography of the Peace.” Unlike Mackinder, he stressed the important role of surrounding countries around the Heartland. Spykman named these countries “Rimland” and claimed that “Who controls the rimland rules Eurasia; who rules Eurasia controls the destinies of the world.” This period of geopolitics ended with the end of World War II, and a new era emerged in geopolitics that is known as the Cold War geopolitics.

The present research is a fundamental-theoretical method, through descriptive-content analysis using the first-hand library resources, evaluates and determines the status of applied recommendations in four of the most important and most well-known classic geopolitical theories - theories of "Sea Power", "Organic State", "The Geographical Pivot of History" and "Rimland".

Based on research findings and their analysis, Mahan in his “Sea Power” theory provides the statesmen of his country with a number of applied recommendations for restoration of the US military and commercial fleet and the transformation of the country into a superior sea power. He recommends the US statesmen to strengthen naval power, dig the Panama Canal, acquire numerous colonies across the world, capture stations around and near the Strait (Panama Canal), control shipping routes, and maintain a powerful naval force during the war. These applied recommendations influenced the thoughts and policies of two US presidents (McKinley and Roosevelt) to strengthen the navy and end America's isolation policy. So, several bases and islands in the Pacific and the Atlantic were conquered by the United States and the Panama Canal was dug, thereby transforming the United States into one of the greatest powers of the world and eventually replacing British naval power after World War II. Ratzel, in the theory of “Organic State” under the influence of social Darwinism, proposes a series of presuppositions to provide applied recommendation to German statesmen. For Ratzel, the German Empire as an organism requires space to survive, and the statesmen of this empire must seek to obtain a vital space in line with the growth of their growing population and think of colonial occupation. He also recommends and encourages his statesmen to adopt a realistic policy (territorial development policy) and to reach more space, which will require Germany to become a superpower, otherwise Germany will be marginalized. Being interested in preserving the hegemony of the British Empire, Mackinder also offers the most important and applied recommendation to the leaders of the British Empire in the “Geopolitical Pivot of History” theory. According to Mackinder, the leaders of the British Empire should prevent the unification of the German and Russian land powers to not let them reach the “Pivot Area” and prevent the formation of unity between these two countries. To this end, Germany and the Soviet Union should be separated by the buffer countries from each other, otherwise the two countries would dominate Eastern Europe, consequently conquering the “Heartland” and dominating the whole world. In “Rimland” theory, Spykman advocates strengthening the nation's sea power, emphasizing the value and position of sea power in domination of the world. By emphasizing that: who controls the “rimland” controls the destinies of the world,” he recommends the US statesmen to control the “rimland” area in order to dominate the world.

To sum up, it can be argued that the classic geopolitical theories, while having the fundamental-theoretical nature also have an applied nature as theoreticians of this period are of a geopolitical nature in terms of the function, efficiency and usefulness of their theories, and by presenting several recommendations have added an applied nature to their theories, so that presentation of functional recommendations has become an inherent responsibility for these theories. Therefore, applied recommendations are among the important features of classic geopolitical theories and had a special place among these theories.

The emergence of Iran's regional power dates back to the Pahlavi era, when the Shah sought the doctrine of Nixon as a regional gendarme in the Persian Gulf. In the international context, such as the deconstruction of the superpowers in the era of the Cold War, the announcement of the Nixon doctrine to transfer the security of the regions to the states in line with it and the vacuum resulting from the departure of Britain from the Persian Gulf, along with regional factors such as the fear of the Shah's influence on the Soviet influence and the expansion of governments Arab radicals played an important role in enhancing the regional status of Iran (Mousavinia, 2013; 130-118). The main objective of Iran was to maintain Persian Gulf security and to deal with regional threats. The reflection of Iran's rising power and regional influence can be seen in the direct presence of Iran in Dhofar in the 1970s, support for Yemeni monarchists in their civil war against Leftist Republicans, support for King Malek Hassan II of Morocco in the battle with police guards and increased military aid to Pakistan saw their tensions with India (Chamankar, 2010; 70-61). The adoption of the policy of "no east, no west" in Iranian foreign policy after the Islamic revolution brought about dramatic changes in regional balance and stability, which resulted in the disappearance of the policy of the two American pillars in the Persian Gulf and the change of regional alliances of Iran.(Axworthy, 2013: 24). Reducing US hegemony in the 21st century, and increasing the role of actors such as China and Russia in the global arena along with regional developments such as the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Arab revolutions in 2011, have strengthened the role of Shiite groups and created a regional coalition of resistance to Iran's leadership, which ultimately led to an increase in the regional influence of Iran (Barzegar, 2015; 35-34). In this period, the most significant reflection of Iran's regional expansion could be seen in the direct presence of Iran's military forces in Iraq and Syria, material assistance to Lebanon's Hezbollah, and counter new security threats such as the emergence of ISIS in the region. The remarkable point in the emergence and retrieval of Iran's regional power is that, firstly, under the influence of the vacuum of power in the region, the influence of Iran has gained an upward trend. This issue occurred during the Pahlavi period following the departure of Britain from the Persian Gulf in 1968 and in the Islamic Republic after the fall of Saddam Hussein by the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Arab revolutions of 2011. Secondly, in both of these two periods, Iran was turning to an offshore military operation to combat radicalism in the region. Iran's military operations in Dhofar have been through opposition to communist radicalism and in Iraq and Syria through the struggle against Islamic radicalism (al-Qaeda and ISIS). Although international and regional developments have played a significant role in increasing Iran's influence in both periods, it seems that whenever national power increases, its external reflection is to increase regional influence. Accordingly, this paper seeks to answer the question of how the role of the national power component in increasing the regional power and influence of Iran in the last half century? For this purpose, first, in the theoretical framework, we will analyze the features of regional power and national power, and then we will examine the role of the components of national power through the review of the regional policy of Iran in the two Pahlavi and Islamic Republic periods.

This paper uses a comparative approach and analytical-descriptive research method to explain its desired subject and the method of data collection is based on library resources.

The theoretical framework of this paper consists of two concepts of regional power and national power. Regional power is a particular type of division of government in which national power is considered as the main criterion. The nature of regional powers is determined by the position of countries in the international system, which is itself influenced by the concept of polarity and the distribution of power in the international system (Griffiths, 2009:746). Saul Bernard Cohen places regional power in the second category of the hierarchy of power in the international system, and believes that regional powers firstly try to raise themselves up as the nucleus and center of the region. Second, follow the military penetration in the region. And thirdly, there are supremacist demands throughout the region (Cohen, 2008:103-107). The point that is important in identifying regional powers is to have relative capabilities, the tendency to display, apply it at the regional level, and influence and influence the process of regional developments. In other words, acting as a regional power, which first has regional function, and secondly, the sources of power as the essential condition for achieving regional power (Salimi, dehghani Firouzabadi and PourEsmaeili,2017 6). Since one of the most important features of regional powers with relative capabilities is the recognition of national power as a geopolitical concept. The function of the national power is that the more a country has a higher national power, there are fewer obstacles to realizing its own national interests and, secondly, the expansion, expansion, and extension of national interests (Hafeznia,2005:252). Various models have been presented to measure national power. The extension of the components of national power has led the paper to focus on four major components. In the geographic ingredient, geographical location of the country, population and strategic position of Iran will be addressed in the region. Economic component for measuring the economic situation of the country on seven factors of economic growth rate, inflation rate, oil revenues, GDP (GDP, GDP per capita, export volume and its share of gross domestic product, import volume and its share of gross production Internal emphasizes. In addition to strategy, to assess military strength, the number of personnel, costs, and military equipment have been looked at as fundamental variables. Finally, in the identity component, the main emphasis of this paper was on identity changes and its impact on Iran's foreign policy orientation.

The country's territorial status is climate-friendly, access to the sea and rivers, communication routes, natural resources and energy reserves is of great importance. Iran is a land which, given geographical location, natural conditions and cultural values, has been the cradle of Asia and the world of civilization, and its domestic political and foreign policy actions have been largely dependent on its geographical location (Hafeznia, 276:1384). In addition, Iran's transit status has been given to Iran by other countries in the Persian Gulf and in the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran, where more than 17 million barrels of oil are transported to the West. At the same time as the geographic location of Iran, its location near the Gulf and Oman Sea coast, its proximity to the Soviet Union and the rich oil resources, has led Iran to be considered as one of the barriers to the influence of American strategy and to As the connecting ring of the two NATO alliances and the Sento (etaat, 2006:188). After the end of the Cold War and the independence of the Soviet republics of Iran, it became more important than the Cold War for its unique position and its location in the midst of two world-class hydrocarbon warehouses - Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. The connection of the Iranian railway network to Central Asia and the expansion of ground communications as well as the connection of the Central Asian oil and gas transmission network to the oil and gas pipelines of Iran has transformed the country into the crossroads and transit center for commercial goods and communications between East and West Asia. (Mojtahad-zadeh,51:1379). Iran, which was important from a strategic perspective during the Cold War, followed the Cold War with a geo-economic factor and found a privileged regional location. Economically, oil revenues have played a significant role in the Iranian economy in two periods. The total oil revenues of Iran in 1973-1979 amounted to about $ 112 billion, and in the years 2017-2002 it is estimated at $ 992 billion. The average growth rate in the Pahlavi era was 10% and the average inflation rate was 8%. While in the Islamic Republic these figures were 3 and 8 percent, respectively. In addition, Growth was 5.6 times the GDP and 2.2 times exports in the Pahlavi era versus a 3-fold increase in GDP and 7.2 exports equaled other distinct economic components in these two periods (The World Bank, IMF). From the military perspective, the 32% defense spending from the 1970-1979 budget against the 16% share of Iran after September 11, 2001 reflected the Pahlavi government's militaristic morale. From the aspect of identity, Pahlavi emphasized on ancient nationalism and the Islamic Republic on Shiite Islam, which has had important implications for regional security.

The components of national power have played a significant role in the regional power of Iran over the past half century. The strategic geographic location and the presence of Iran in the Persian Gulf had two major roles due to the importance of huge oil resources in each period. During the second Pahlavi, Iran played the role of a regional power because of the presence in the West Belt of Security through the geostrategic-geopolitical advantage. Following the departure of this position due to the outbreak of the Islamic Revolution and the end of the Cold War, Iran, along with retaining the geopolitical advantage, also gained an economic advantage. Economic indicators are also significant in these two periods. In both periods, the unprecedented increase in oil prices and, as a result of rising domestic incomes, created a great opportunity to play an active regional role. Although some of the economic indicators of the Pahlavi era have a favorable situation, it is necessary to note that, firstly, in terms of economic indicators, both oil price increases in both periods have led to widespread imports, for example, in 1978, the volume of imports from exports grew further. However, from this perspective, in the period 2016-2002, the volume of imports has never exceeded exports. Secondly, although oil revenues have played a large role in the economy during each period, the dependence of the Pahlavi economy on oil revenues has been greater than the Islamic Republic. From a military point of view, the average military spending during the Pahlavi period was about 32%, while during the Islamic Republic it was about 16% of the total government budget, indicating that it was militaristic in the Pahlavi state. The Pahlavi government has also used nationalism as an identity to display its distinction, which was due both to domestic needs (the crisis of legitimacy) and to the developments of the region (the emergence of Arab nationalism). In contrast to the Islamic Republic's emphasis on Shiite identity. On the whole, it can be said that although in both periods Iran has been considered as a regional power in the Middle East, the regional influence of Iran during the Islamic Republic is due to factors such as geopolitical-geo-economic advantages, significant oil revenues, military capabilities, the adoption of identity Universality and broader spheres of influence than Pahlavi era have increased.

Religion and its function in geopolitical adversarial has a significant place in the new mainstream of geopolitics studies and particularly in the geo-culture debates. Any religion has its own sacred place which has a religious function. In the religions that have an ideological function, a sacred place can act as an ideological core. Shia’ is one of the significant religious that have remarkable ideological function and Karbala due to the event of Ashura act as a core among its numerous sacred places.  

This paper with descriptive-analytic method and based on the library studies and with comparison of scientific-researches findings and also by using profound and expand interviews with the experts has tried to answer the question that “what are the political-spatial sittings of Karbala geopolitical functions during the history as Shia’ ideological core?” 

Although Karbala is a sacred place with religious attitude, but it has an essential political functions due to its strong political-social setting. In this regard, Karbala has acted as a political event and phenomena alongside its common religious functions during the history. In points of Shiite view, Karbala is not an absurd historical event, but it has a significant place as same as divine things. Therefore, Karbala and its historical narrations have an important role in identification of Shia’ and it has mainly divided Shia’ with the others. The main point is that this political function derived from Karbala have not limited to its geographical specific surroundings, but the political and ideological burden of Karbala has reproduced in different spaces and times. In other words, distribution of Karbala ideological narration has infra geographical and historical features. To this point, the concept of “every day is Ashura and everywhere is Karbala” is an all-time live phenomenon. 

To response to the question of the research, we have recognized seven political-spatial settings that caused Karbala have geopolitical functions. In addition, we showed that   Core and subjective of conflicts between Shia’ and Sunni Political functions in the requiems An aspiration for Shiite movements Legitimization of Shiite governments Motivation for Shia’ territoriality and territorialization Pattern of resistance geopolitics for Shia’ Power exhibition and geopolitical prestige for Shia’   In fact, Karbala as a sacred place and with political-religious role and also as a core of Shia’ ideology is able to act as a geopolitical fact and based on these political-spatial settings, Karbala is an issue of competition among the powers. In fact, Karbala as an actor and player was able to affect and implement in geopolitics point of view.

Syria is one of the most complex crises in Arab societies which lasts for several years. Iran and Turkey as two regional countries entered the crisis from the outset and with the aim of changing the political map and balance of power in the Middle East, trying to control the situation in Syria. their efforts to control the situation in Syria have led them to unprecedented competition, based on ideological and identity variables. This is while the two countries worked together before the Syrian crisis in various dimensions of trade, transportation, diplomacy, and so on  and according to Turkey's new foreign policy, they demanded "zero problem" with their neighbors. That's why, given the areas of cooperation between the two countries and the policy based on the interaction of Turkey, this question will be created.  is how the competition between Iran and Turkey could The results of this research showed that Iran decided to help sustain the rule of the Bashar al-Assad regime as its sole strategic ally in the Middle East. And Turkey want to deposit the rule of the Bashar al-Assad regime and replace by another state.

In this paper, the descriptive-analytical method has been used and for collecting information, the library method, letters, reports and valid data are used in English and Persian. Also on statistics, the percentage contribution method, indexation, contractual, and the use of its own indexes are used as score. Then with the algebras sum of positive and negative score of variables and the determination of the country's score in each factor, and finally the sum of the score of all factors, the national strength of each country determines.

The findings of the article are as follows:1-Iran and Turkey, as long as they are at the same level of power, are placed in the form  of two rivals or partners in different issues and levels. 2- Iran and Turkey on issues whose vital interests are threatened, compete with each other and one of these issues is the Syrian crisis. the Syrian crisis has clearly captured the vital interests of the two countries and according to this, two countries are in conflict with each other in the form of rival – rival. 3- Iran and Turkey on issues that related to their secondary interests, establish a cooperative relationship in the form of two partner and allies. It should be noted that the secondary interests are interests that do not harm the security and power of these two. The result of the study shows that the interference of Iran and Turkey's role in the Syrian crisis,bring them into conflict patterns because each country sees another role as an obstacle to its role and try to reduce or even prevent another role. so, this effort and competition leads their raltions to conflict and the more these efforts, the greater these conflicts.

In the Syrian crisis, what has caused Iran-Turkey rivalry and what exacerbates this competition is the efforts of the two countries to play their intended role. according to this, given the importance of Syria, Iran and Turkey have drawn their goals based on this importance. victory in the Syrian crisis for Iran is very important for some reason, including maintaining strategic position and increasng regional influence, maintaining strength of resistance, confronting the hostilities of neighboring Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, confronting ISIL and Takfiri groups and etc and in order to achieve these goals, iran needs to maintain Assad as its strategic partner. for this reason, Iran plays a protective role in Syria seeking to preserve the rule of Assad. on the other hand, success in the Syrian crisis is important for Turkey and this includes the regional containment of Iran, the presentation of the pattern of the Brotherhood order against the resistance axis pattern, preventing kurds Incitement and their separatist demands. given that Turkey considers Assad as an obstacle to achieving these goals, it seeks to change the rule of Assad and replace it with a puppet's Sunni government. accordingly, Turkey's role in the Syrian crisis is a revisionist role, which is in contrast to Iran. and each country, while trying to play its role, seeks to prevent the role of the other side. in the Syrian crisis, the rivalry between the two countries over the balance of role and the zero sum game within the scope of roles.

The results of this research showed that Iran decided to help sustain the rule of the Bashar al-Assad regime as its sole strategic ally in the Middle East. And Turkey want to deposit the rule of the Bashar al-Assad regime and replace by another state. So that with two antithetical roles, the pattern of behavior leads to conflict and competition. Indeed, the interference of their role leads to competition.

 Access and lack of access the countries to open sea, formating the geographical location of coastal peninsula, island or landlocked for the country. Marine and ocean environment compared with dry environments have different characteristics. Area of ocean is three times the land. Water bodies are spherical cohesion while the land suffered the fragmentation of space. Water bodies, have environmental position and dry Area have peripheral position. The controling of water bodies in the world will be have initiative and challenging the dry area. Sea power is one most important facets of states’ national power. Sea power is not considered properly in evaluating national power, because it includes different factors. Sea power is the only facet of national powers that can be presented in different water bodies, and do not suffer from land and air powers limitations. This article investigates the role of geographic and territorial situation in states sea power.

This research is fundamental and in terms of nature is descriptive - analytical and ecological research among geographical sciences rather than lie. The data analysis procedure is based on qualitative method. The data collection tools by visiting the library, papers, documents and information portals specialized organizations.

Sea power is formed from different factors like geographic-territorial, social, economic, political, diplomatic and military.Geographic and territorial situation of sea states is the most important factor in their sea power, and all of the other factors depends on this factor. Geographic and territorial situation of sea states includes the length (up to 200 nautical miles) of shore and some other territorial features. Sea access, the nature of the coastal zone (properties of the coastal zone), territorial scope and area of the country, maritime zones, connection to Sea lines of communication (straits, channels etc.) islands (residential and non-residential), are the most important factors related to the geographic and territorial factor.

These factors are investigated in this article. Beside of the importance of each factor, the nature of the coastal zone is important than other geographic and territorial factors. In other words, the nature of the coastal zone characterizes the abilities and limitations of the states’ sea power.

When elected as the president, Donald Trump started opposing against I.R. Iran, meaning the Deal as a "disaster”, "the worst Deal ever” and so "terrible" that could lead to "a nuclear holocaust". Trump administration after failure in reforming the Deal, unilaterally withdrew from the so-called Deal. After withdrawal, the opposition of the America exceeded the Nuke area into the regional influence and missile capabilities of Iran. This caused to some kinds of opposing challenges bringing up geopolitical elements and consequences.

In this study, for proving the hypotheses, we use the specification-analytical method. The research data gathered through library studies and documents, surveying articles, strategic documents, journals and US research centers outputs, and also analyzing speeches and oppositions.

The findings of this study are discussed under the following themes:US Middle East Politics at Donald Trump Administration:In this chapter we try to answer some questions: What are the relations between Trump Middle East and his entire foreign policy? What are the priorities or Middle East important subjects which Trump has been engaged or has taken special approaches or positions on? What are the expectations of Middle East countries from US in Trump administration? Since Trump presidential campaign announced his goal as “prioritize” to America in any program and politics, based on this, Deal with main foreign policy crises.  So he faced with three important challenges: first: Iran Deal,(firstly nuke deal): second: Fighting ISIS: third: Arab-Israel, Iran-Israel conflicts and Arab countries were third side of his pyramid in Middle East opposition. Arab countries firstly counted Trump comings days as “not confident” situation. Israel got more accompanying with Trump and gradually Iran changed to his main Middle East challenge. Iran and Donald Trump Foreign Policy:Iran situation within Trump Middle East policies defined around the following thematic titles: assuming Iran as a critical threat for the US: Introducing Iran as backing terrorism: Introducing Iran as a threat in destabilizing the region and the security of alliances. Trump’s Strategy in opposing Iran: the reasonability ofTrump and his administration are on the base of three mega cases:  “nuclear activity”, “missile program”, and “supporting regional alliances” which could be as costing cases for Islamic Republic of Iran where economic pressure get raised, Iran would not be able to provide the fund for running forward and executing of the above cases. For getting a coalition, the securitizing the above three cases got pursued Geopolitical Elements of US opposing policies against Iran in Trump Administration:Limiting the influence and regional role of Iran through fighting Iran’s representing groups, combating Iran influence in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, and making coalition against Iran, is geopolitical elements of US opposing policies against Iran in Trump administration. Geopolitical goals of Trump opposing policies against Iran:Opposing with Iran in Trump administration has some consequences like increasing Arab countries security dependent to US, accompanying with Israel avarice program and trying to limit Iran in its geopolitical environment.

Iran’s goals and policies in Middle East and global systems are in conflict with the permanent goals of US. Iran’s also has some sorts of features and behaviors which show Iran’s efforts in getting empowered on the base of main geopolitical concepts: Power and Space. These characteristics are shown obviously in its national power element: like regional influence, local missile technology and nuclear enrichment program. Regarding US hegemonic policies and Iran anti-hegemonic policies, frequently interests and policies of two countries in main domain and cases are in opposition with each other.

The ratio of knowledge and value is one of the most important discussions in Philosophy of Science. In this regard, according to the opinion of most of philosophers social sciences, from a rational point of view, there is no productive relation between propositions related to objective and real phenomena with value and credit propositions and the realities do not contain elements of value and in their essence they are independent of the goals individual, but at the same time, knowledge and objectivity in the external environment and in practice, have a relationship with values and interests. In contrast, followers of critical school believe that a relationship is found between knowledge with interests human so that essentially the existence of objective knowledge is impossible regardless of interests. In this regard, those like Wittfogel and O’Tuathail considered geography and geopolitics as a collection of "knowledge/power" and the ideology of the bourgeois class as well as geography as power generation. In this paper, by presenting various propositions of human and physical geography we showed that ontology, epistemology and methodology of geography are value-free, but at the stage of practice and application, geography can serve the powers and ideologies. Therefore, the claim thinkers of critical schools based on considering knowledge prior to values and interests is due to the mix of "theory and practice" or "meaning and application". And they consider these two as one and therefore believe that knowledge is essentially interwoven with practical and applied goals, and There is no value-free knowledge.