Soft Geopolitics Interaction and Balance Case Study: Middle East in 2001-9

Document Type : Original Article

Author

- Associate Professor of Political Science, Tehran University

Abstract

The US declared goals for its military attack on Afghanistan and Iraq are in consistent with deployment of power tools to resolve the challenges and to produce geopolitical balance in the region, although the US practical measures implied different signs.  In reaction to military measures, different factions criticized this strategy and policy, for they have posed various threats to the US. Joseph Nai and Collin maintain that application of hard power not only does not lead to stability and security, but also intensify regional crises.
They believe that there is a bilateral relationship between Geopolitics of Balance and Soft Balance. It means the more application of military power the more regional imbalance which will prepare the grounds for spread of public crisis. The theoretical framework of this paper is based on the neoliberal approaches of Joseph Nai, The hypothesis of this paper is: the more application of unilateral hard power by the US, more grounds will be prepared for regional conflict. contradiction and challenge generate in the region , therefore multilateralism and confidence-building are prerequisite to regional balance. The Persian Gulf region which involves geopolitical implications in international politics can enjoy regional balance and stability only if it is controlled through soft patterns on the other hand and if measures like preemptive wars are not deployed. On the contrary the deployment of patterns like organization of regional security, confidence-building regime and regional coalitions to confront external threats will be useful.
 
 

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