‍Central Asia and The Caucasus Journal

Abstract Economy has been an inseparable part of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Kazakhstan Republic’s relations after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Trade relations between the countries have had an impressive growth and a substantial number of legal documents have been signed in order to facilitate trade relations between two countries. However after 2000 rise and fallhas been witnessed in the bilateral trades due to political economy. Against this background both countries made some attempts to stabilize their relations through political and economic mechanisms.             The authors try to find an answer for the following question: Which model of political economy has been used by Iran and Kazakhstan to stabilize the economic relations since 2010 to 2020? They argue that Iran and Kazakhstan have usedmultilateral trends of political integration with the pivotal role of geo-economic objectives. Therefore the two countries have cooperated in different multilateral frameworks including economic unions, common legal platforms and international transit projects. One of the achievements has been paving the ground for Iran’s partnership in Eurasian Integration.

Abstract Competitive behavior of the countries in economic area of contemporary era has led to the formation of new theoretical approaches for explaining those behaviors. In the mentioned era, economy has once again been noticed as the main motivation for world powers’ competition. Strategic relations between US and China also have the mentioned characteristic. Their competition in Tajikistan is seen as a new form of competition in international arena. Therefore the present article tries to answer the following question: What are the most important elements in competitive interaction between US and China in Tajikistan? According to the hypothesis, the most important elements in competitive interaction between the two countries are defined in two categories of economics and security. The mentioned competition has also its impact on the national interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

Abstract   Security vision of Russia’s Neo – Eurasianists towards its near abroad has been suspicious about West and has fully attempted to combat and reduce western influence in regional security structure, especially since Putin’s retaking office (and also in latest period of Medvedev office). Against this background, the core of the mentioned discourse has been upon building institutions and structures that were to attract regional cooperation for competing western security structures, especially NATO in Russia’s near abroad. Using regional security complex theory, the present literature attempts to explain Russian behavior in its near abroad. Considering the importance and the position of the mentioned theory in explanation of security evolutions after the cold war, the present article tries to answer the following question:  What security relation is chosen as desired for Russia towards it’s near abroad? The hypothesis is that Russia attempts to pioneer a regional security complex in its near abroad so that it would attract regional countries to its desired economic, security provisions and institutions and therefore to prevent the influence of trans-regional actors and organizations. Using explanatory – analyzing research method and library resources the authors try to tell why the research findings provide an answer to the research question.

Abstract Smart diplomacy is a concept which is used arguably by foreign diplomacy executives in order to utilize the opportunities and different capabilities of their countries, including material and spiritual resources, and hardware and software resources to achieve and extend national goals. Diplomatic cooperation between countries in the contemporary era is more diverse than that of previous years. One of the most important aspects of this diversityis the integration of traditional methods of multilateral diplomacy with the pattern of smart diplomacy in the various geopolitical fields. The geopolitics of the Caspian Sea due to its unique complexities is considered as one of the most important areas in the foreign policy of Islamic republic of Iran that calls for implementing the proper methodology of smart diplomacy. This paper explains the most important elements and concepts of smart diplomacy as well as the necessity of its implementation in Caspian Sea geopolitics. This study adopting a blending approach explains the current trends in the geopolitics of Caspian Sea, and regarding future-based methodology aims to answer the question of how the correct use of smart diplomacy by foreign policy diplomats will be effective in managing Caspian Sea issues. The proposed hypothesis is that smart diplomacy due to having accelerating components is the most practical element to establish interactive diplomatic methods for the diplomats in charge of the foreign policy of Caspian Sea.