Quarterly Journal of West Asia Political Research

Abstract The post-Cold War era has been marked by an escalation of conflicts, with the United States increasingly taking a unilateral stance in global governance. While US expansionist policies were tempered by ideological competition with the communist camp during the Cold War, the post-Cold War era has seen these policies take new forms through economic neoliberalism, military interventions justified by the “war on terror,” and the strategic use of sanctions. NATO expansion since the 1990s has exacerbated tensions with Russia, culminating in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The research findings show that in West Asia, the US support for Israel, following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, has led to and even facilitated significant violations of international law and humanitarian norms. This unchecked support for Israeli policies, along with the broader pursuit of unilateralism, challenges global stability and the prospects for a multilateral, rule-based international order.

Abstract The Gaza war, which began on October 7, 2023, and lasted 15 months, triggered intense global reactions due to the widespread destruction of buildings, hospitals, schools, and the killing of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army. However, compared to the widespread protests in the West, those in Islamic countries were limited in scale and intensity, showing no signs of igniting Arab nationalism. This raises the question: what factors have contributed to the decline of Arab nationalism in the Middle East? This research hypothesizes that the decline of Arab nationalism results from complex interactions among political, social, and economic factors. A qualitative explanatory method was employed, using library-based data collection. The findings reveal that Arab nationalism has historically faced numerous challenges, including reformist and secessionist movements. Furthermore, the positions of Arab countries and recent developments during the Gaza war have weakened national identity and Arab unity. These countries perceive a new wave of nationalism based on Islamism as a threat to their authoritarian regimes and thus strive to suppress Arab nationalism in the region. Additionally, internal rivalries among Arab states, economic dependence on the West, and the inability to form effective unions are significant contributors to this decline. Consequently, Arab nationalism has gradually been replaced by local and religious tendencies, which in some cases have deepened internal divisions and further weakened Arab solidarity.

Abstract In all countries of the world, we witness inequality between women and men in terms of participation in elected bodies, such as legislative assemblies and national and local councils. In general, women’s participation in elections as candidates and their election is at a much lower level than that of men. One of the solutions that has been implemented in many democratic countries to address this inequality has been to consider special quotas for women in elections. These quotas have been implemented in the form of several different models in different countries. In general, the three models for implementing gender quotas are: 1. The model of considering reserved seats for women in elected bodies; 2. The model of legally binding quotas for parties in introducing female candidates; and 3. The model of voluntary quotas for parties in introducing female candidates. In some countries, these quotas have achieved the goal of improving the status of women in elected bodies, but in a number of other countries, the implementation of these quotas has not been very successful. The main question of the research is what model of gender quotas exists in Arab countries and what impact have these quotas had on the presence of women in the legislative assemblies of Arab countries? The present research attempts to examine this mechanism in terms of law and the implementation model in the elected bodies of these countries, focusing on those Arab countries that are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council in which there is a mechanism of electoral gender quotas. This research also examines the consequences of implementing such quotas in these countries and will evaluate the extent of their practical success.

Abstract A large part of international relations theories do not consider religion to have a role. International relations theorists consider the Treaty of Westphalia to be based on a secular approach that stopped the interference of religion in politics and independent countries were formed in such conditions. However, with the presentation of the theory of "international society" of the English school by "Martin White", attention to the role of religion in international relations became more colorful and theorists addressed it under the title of "normativity". Considering the epistemological and ontological foundations of this theory, the question that arises is that if religion has been accepted as a norm by the English school, what "function" does it have in the formation of the international community of West Asia? The hypothesis tested in this paper is that from the perspective of the English School, religion as a norm is influential in the formation of international society, but its role in societies varies, regardless of the degree of religious democracy or not. The findings of the research from the perspective of the English School of solidarity show that in West Asia, since most governments have low legitimacy or sometimes lack legitimacy, civil society is weak and some polar interpretations of religion and its role in politics, as well as the gap in religious interpretations and functions between political systems, have caused the formation of international society in this region to face various challenges.

Abstract The Red Sea region and the Bab el‑Mandeb Strait, as vital transit routes for a large share of global energy and goods, rank among the world’s most strategic maritime chokepoints. Since the outbreak of Yemen’s crisis in 2011, this corridor has become a contested arena for Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Israel. This study addresses the question: What objectives does Iran pursue in the Red Sea, and to what extent has its strategy secured Iranian national security against geopolitical threats? It hypothesizes that Tehran’s policy is fundamentally defensive—aimed at forestalling external threats, extending strategic depth, and deterring hostile coalitions led by Riyadh, Washington, and Jerusalem—and that these measures have substantially enhanced Iran’s deterrence. Employing defensive realism as its theoretical framework, which emphasizes state security over expansionism and casts threat balancing as a core strategy in an anarchic system, the research adopts a qualitative–descriptive approach based on document analysis. Primary sources include official Iranian communiqués, international agency reports, and peer‑reviewed scholarship. Findings reveal that, by forging alliances with proxy actors and leveraging asymmetric naval capabilities, Iran has effectively countered the Saudi–U.S. axis, safeguarded its strategic interests, and established a relative balance and deterrence in one of the world’s most geopolitically sensitive theaters—thereby advancing its national security

Abstract Events such as geopolitical developments in the Southwest Asia region after the Cold War, changes in the global and regional power system and the emergence of new opportunities for the United States on the international stage, naive optimism towards these developments and the failure to adopt a serious and effective strategy to neutralize the country's national security threats, as well as some administrative, economic and executive bottlenecks and inadequacies in the country over the past few decades, led to agreements with Western governments to lift sanctions, one of the most important of which was the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA. The purpose of writing this research is to examine the historical causes that influenced the formation of the mentality of the two actors (Iran and the United States) in the international arena. The main question of the present research is what historical factors caused the formation of the mentality of the two actors in the international arena from each other and the withdrawal of the United States from the JCPOA and ultimately the military aggression of the United States against Iran? It seems that factors such as; The historical actions of the United States before the Islamic Revolution of Iran, such as its involvement in the coup of August 19, 1953, and years of influence in Iran, the colonization of the mind and the colonial and imperialist approach of the West and the United States, and its support for the Zionist regime and its expansionist ambitions, led to a wave of change in the Islamic Republic of Iran's approach towards the United States and serious reactions against this country. The method of the research is descriptive and analytical, and the data collection method is library and also utilizing scientific resources in cyberspace.