Faṣlnāmah-i Pizhūhish/hā-yi Rāhburdī-i Siyāsat (Sep 2014)
Iran, the Islamic World and Change in the Geometry of International Power
Abstract
Transition Period is a key subject in the discipline of International relations andpolitics. At the present time, there is a consensus among academic forums about thefact that the existing order is experiencing new changes. Critics have tried tounderstand these changes and their impacts on general trends. Along with othertransformational tendencies, the experience of the Islamic Revolution as atransformational movement advanced change in the geometry of internationalpower from the beginning. The main question of this article is that are there anyphilosophical and theoretical bases for change in the international social order inIslamic Revolution and the Iran’s contexts? As a result, the main goal of this articleis to explore the philosophical foundations of change desire in the Iranian cultureand to build a link between these foundations and new imperatives for acting in linewith changing the geometry of international power. This hypothesis assumes theexistence of rich intellectual and philosophical layers in the Islamic Republic andIran driving at active participation in the process of changing the geometry ofinternational power. In answering the question regarding existing philosophicalpotentialities in Iranian and Islamic cultures in the process of changing thegeometry of international power, this article relying upon the rational approach,explains resources contributing change in the existing geometry of internationalpower in the context of Iranian cultural life. For this reason, this article claims thatthe notion of demanding change in various orders (general and particular) lies inthe essence of the Islamic Revolution and is the product of Iranian culture andhistory. Another point is that demanding change paradoxically involves therecognition existing ethnicities. This can also be interpreted as a kind of invitation.This invitation includes both will to change and will to conform.
