فصلنامه روابط خارجی
پیاپی 54 (تابستان 1401)

The continuous trend of the rise of China and India, has taken their competition to regional fields and both governments consider the seat of superior power in Asia the prelude for turning into a Global Power. While the publication that has been done on Sino-Indian relations mostly focus on its relations to great powers specially The US, the new wave of regional Sino-Indian competition in the era of "Major connectivity initiatives" has not received the ample attention. This article uses the descriptive-explanatory method to analyze the Sino-Indian relations outside of systemic level of power and under the influence of Belt and road Initiative (BRI) and series of balancing measures taken by India on regional level. To answer the question of "what was the impact of BRI on Sino-Indian relations between 2013-2022? This article hypothesize that BRI has posed serious threat for India and has made it to take balancing measures. It is argued that India in response to alleged violation of its sovereignty on Kashmir Region, geopolitical containment by China and concerns over a looming China centric new order has used its old policy change in Kashmir, official opposition to BRI and offering regional initiatives countering the BRI as India’s balancing measures against BRI. The findings of this article, while confirming the relative compatibility of BRI and Walt's balance of threat theory, introduce new windows for reconstructing the validity of this theory.

Boundaries due to internal dynamics on the one side, On the other side, Reliance on a philosophical whole in the separation of identities and a strong rational logic in defense of sovereignty and national security is not lost; But they are redefined in functions. Believers in the collapse of the Westphalia system, influenced by post-positivist theoretical foundations and subsequent developments in the process of globalization, It is believed that the present world has entered an era known as the post-Westphalia system, in which, as in the past, modern phenomena derived from the Westphalia heritage, such as state, land and border, no longer have their traditional function. Comparing this article, the nature, identity, and function of the border in the two eras of the Westphalian state and the post-Austrian era, she believes The present world is as vast as all its advances in Technology is embroiled in crises and growing threats; Like the corona virus crisis. It is no exaggeration to say that this crisis is the cause of the resurgence of the boundaries of political geography at all scales; It was from local / places up to international. The crisis, while recalling the basic concepts in political geography recalling the role of borders in defending the principle of national security, national sovereignty, and integrity Territorial, and national independence, arrangement territorial, etc. It was a renewed warning in the direction of philosophical thinking and a rational and realistic view of the existence and functioning of borders.

Diplomatic and security dynamics in South and Central Asia and neighboring countries increased after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan on August 30, 2021 and the Taliban's takeover of Kabul. China, as Afghanistan's neighbor in the past and now, has been particularly sensitive to developments in Afghanistan and has sought to influence developments in various ways. In the last two decades, the Taliban has been the focus of Beijing's foreign policy as an influential group in Afghanistan. Given China's action on the Taliban, it is necessary to clarify China's strategy towards the Taliban after the August 2021 regime. In this regard, through analytical-explanatory method, the question has been asked how China seeks to influence the equations of Afghanistan in the Taliban era and expand cooperation with this group? In response, it is assumed that the Taliban's security threats and economic requirements for China have led it to expand its strategic sphere of influence and access to a strategic partner in the South Asian regional security complex through constructive economic and security engagement in the form of cooperation with the Taliban. Findings shows that security and economic components of the Sino-Taliban relationship were highlighted before the US withdrawal and during the current Taliban regime, with Beijing seeking "constructive intervention and becoming an effective player" in the South Asian regional security complex Through cooperation with the Taliban.

Rising demand and declining supply have been two simultaneous trends that have exacerbated the crisis and competition for shared water resources in the region over the past few decades. On the one hand, population growth, uncontrolled consumption and increasing economic consumption have caused a sharp jump in demand for water resources, and on the other hand, climate change has led to a decrease in supply. Joint watersheds around Iran, especially in the eastern border watersheds including Hamoon (Helmand) and Sarakhs (Harirod) between Iran, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan have intensified. In this context, the main question of the present study is how to explain and model the convergent and divergent hydropolitical foundations of Iran in the common watersheds of the eastern borders? Common on the basis of hydro-liberalism and based on hydro-diplomacy, functionalist diplomacy and legal cooperation, while Iran's divergent hydropolitical foundations with these countries based on the theory of hydrorealism and based on disputes over water, the view of Afghan political leaders Climate change and disputes over the legal regime can be modeled.

This article discusses the foreign policy strategy of traditional Arab leaders in the three countries of "Saudi Arabia", "UAE" and "Egypt" and by reading their foreign policy, features such as the policy of non-confrontation with Iran, economic dependence on Western countries; Westernization and non-recognition of Israel were examined. However, the present study seeks to answer the fundamental question of the traditional Arab leaders' foreign policy strategy and what approach they took towards Iran? The strategy of traditional Arab leaders towards foreign policy has been based on defensive realism. By adopting this strategy, Arab leaders avoided costly and impulsive behaviors towards regional conflicts by pursuing a policy of patience and anticipation. They also followed a conservative approach to the Islamic Republic of Iran, far from confrontation. In this article, James Rosena's theory of decision making and defensive realism have been used as a framework of integrated theory, and the research method is descriptive-analytical. The library-documentary way has been used to collect data. The present study's findings show that traditional Arab leaders, unlike the new generation, pursued a conservative and defensive strategy in foreign policy, and their approach to Iran was based on a policy of patience and avoidance of confrontation and aggression.

China, in the status of a peer competitor to the US, has recognized the need to reap the benefit of such power by using it in different parts of the world including the African continent; since Africa has always been one of China’s areas of interest throughout history. China has used Smart power to assert its position as one of the world's great powers in the foreign policy. With regard to the significance of this type of power in China’s policy towards Africa, this article, through mixed research, seeks to answer the following question: What are the tools employed by China to have an active presence in Africa? The research hypothesis is that, firstly, by stablishing close ties and a strong foothold in international organizations, secondly, by stiving at various levels of diplomacy including cultural, media and exchange to introduce its culture and values to the Continent, thirdly, by scientific, research and technological cooperation as one of main parts of mutual relation, fourthly, by close economic relation in fields of trade and investment, and finally, by performing an active role in improving development indexes including food security, infrastructure, healthcare and environmental protection, China has been able to have an active presence in the continent.

Since the beginning, Islamic Republic of Iran, according to its essential ideological principles and with the sanctioned support of its Constitution, has always sought material and spiritual aid to Islamic resistance and liberation movements; and has consequently incurred many costs in this direction. The successes of the Lebanese Islamic Resistance against the Zionist regime, the formation of a popular mobilization in Iraq to confront the terrorist group ISIS, the intellectual and political growth of the West Asian nations in recent years; regional demands tied to ideals such as independence, justice, and Islamism; dealing with interventionist powers; as well as the rise of the Islamic awakening of the oppressed people in countries such as Bahrain, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, etc.; have all provided a critical opportunity to throughly analyze the emergence of the resistance front and its reasons.This study discusses intellectual foundations in the field of foreign policy, and examines the components of this front, from the perspective of strategic foresight and its related tools. By employing strategic foresight methods, through environmental scanning, the phenomena and issues related to emergence of the resistance front have been identified, and priorities of these issues have been categorized. Finally, by utilizing cross impact analysis method and MicMac software, key factors and their direct and indirect effects of assessment are evaluated. Hence, the most important issues related to the emergence of the resistance axis are investigated.

Following the US invasion of Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 and the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003 and the elimination of the Taliban and Saddam, the Islamic Republic of Iran, relying on components such as 1) increasing military capabilities, (especially in the missiles and drones sector), 2) designing a regional program to support allies (axis of resistance) and 3) pursuing a peaceful nuclear program, presented itself as a regional power. At the same time, Israel put the weakening of the power components of the Islamic Republic of Iran on its agenda. Therefore, the main question is "What goals has Israel pursued in the period of 2012 to 2022 from balancing towards the Islamic Republic of Iran as a foreign policy behavior?", it presents the hypothesis that "Israel Through balancing, which is a government strategy or behavior, it tries to: 1) increase its capabilities; and 2) Weakening the capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran in order to a) to match or offset with the capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran and/or b) take steps to obtain a better range of results. The aim of this research is to extract a coherent model in order to analyze the behavior of Israel's foreign policy in the period of 2012 to 2022. Therefore, in this research, the concept of balancing has been chosen in order to analyze Israel's foreign policy behavior. This research is descriptive-analytical. Relevant data has been collected from internet and library sources.

The South Caucasus region and the Caspian region are among the most important geostrategic regions which act as a communication corridor from Europe to Central Asia. Regarding the rich resources of energy carriers of Iran and the dire need for the region and european countries, it considers Iran important in terms of energy exchange. In spite of the opportunities for Iran to expand its influence in the south caucasus region as well as the formation of a suitable and safe bed in the form of cooperation with the eurasian states face serious challenges. The main question of this study is why the Islamic Republic of Iran has not been succesful in comparison to its competitors, despite having large reserves of energy and transit capacities in transferring energy to the South Caucasus? In order to answer the current question, relevant and reliable sources and data collected by the library method have been used. The research findings indicate that despite the availability of a suitable market in the region, the existence of some challenges such as the presence of major powers such as the United States and European countries in the region of South Caucasus, the emergence of some competing corridors for Iran in line with the aims and political interests of European countries and Russia, has caused problems for Irans energy maneuver in the South Caucasus region.