political science

The upcoming article examines the relationship between the political participation index and the responsiveness and efficiency of government institutions. The independent variable is both formal and informal political participation, and the dependent variable is the responsive-ness and efficiency of government institutions. Research Method: The method employed in the article is quantitative, using a questionnaire as the tool. The research population consists of individuals aged 18 to 65 residing in the city of Kermanshah. According to the latest census, there were 952,287 people in this population. Using Cochran's formula, a sample of 384 individuals was selected, and the relationship and ratio between the independent and dependent variables were assessed using multiple regression analysis. Research Findings: The results indicate that both formal and informal political participation have a significant impact on im-proving the performance of government institutions. With an increase in the level of participation, the responsiveness and efficiency of government institutions will also improve. The research findings suggest that the average level of formal and informal political participation in Kermanshah is not at a desirable level. The obtained average scores regarding the performance of government institutions (responsiveness and efficiency) also have a low level. Additionally, the formal political participation variable has a greater impact compared to informal political participation.

The discussion on the relationship between religion and politics has a long history in Christianity, spanning several centuries. With the onset of modernity, especially with the theories proposed by Thomas Hobbes, the claim of secularism or the separation of religion from politics was raised and remains a subject of much debate to this day. Thomas Hobbes, in the aftermath of the religious wars in England during the 16th and 17th centuries, attempted to transform worldly power into the ulti-mate arbiter in the public sphere by separating the foundations of politics from religion, introducing the concept of "state religion." In contrast to the West, Islamic thought has consistently understood politics based on religious foundations. In the 20th century, due to colonization, the debate on the separation of religion from politics entered the Islamic world. With the victory of the Islamic Revo-lution, this Western claim was challenged, and Imam Khomeini introduced the theory of the "Reli-gious state," presenting the religious nature of political foundations in Islam in a novel way. Based on these foundations, this article aims to explore the relationship between religion and politics in the political thoughts of Thomas Hobbes and Imam Khomeini, both of whom, as founders and initia-tors of political thought, have presented era-defining views. In doing so, we seek to demonstrate, through an examination of their arguments, the perspectives on the relationship between religion and politics put forth by Imam Khomeini and Hobbes. Through this comparative analysis, we can highlight important points in these two types of thinking. Consequently, by considering the discus-sions regarding the relationship between religion and politics in Western and Islamic thought, using a descriptive-analytical approach, we pose the following questions: What is the relationship be-tween religion and politics in the political thoughts of Thomas Hobbes and Imam Khomeini? What is the concept of "state religion" according to Thomas Hobbes? What is the concept of the "Reli-gious state" according to Imam Khomeini?

Southwest Asia has played a central role in the geopolitics of the global system since the Cold War years. All characteristics of a geopolitical region can be observed in Southwest Asia. In this geographical area, signs of challenge, crisis, conflict, and competition for power expansion among regional actors and significant powers are expanding. The security environment of Southwest Asia is linked with many indicators of "geopolitics of crisis" and "geopolitics of chaos." Given these conditions, as well as the political and social challenges and the geopoliti-cal conflicts and security concerns in the region, the actions of actors—especially the emer-gence of centrifugal actors in Southwest Asia—will also change. Accordingly, it is predictable that the states of Southwest Asia can achieve their goals under conditions of stability and se-curity. As a result, the national goals and interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran can also be better secured under such conditions. In other words, the agent's actions in this region influ-ence the security environment of this area. The aim of this study is to explain the actions of the agents and examine the impact of their actions on the processes of the security environ-ment. The study's findings show that one of Iran's security priorities in Southwest Asia is to prevent the increase of influence by regional and extra-regional powers in this area and reduce it. In this regard, Iran seeks to tie its interests to the region by creating economic and cultural relations that ensure mutual and multilateral benefits through appropriate and reasonable se-curity policy.

In recent decades, the concept of sustainable regional development has become one of the funda-mental axes of policymaking at regional levels in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In this regard, with the design and implementation of five-year medium-term plans such as the Fourth Development Plan, greater coherence and alignment between policies and executive actions emerged, and the de-cision-making system became more systematic. This research, using library tools for data collection and descriptive-analytical methods and qualitative content analysis, as well as utilizing the theory of social and spatial justice, sought to answer the question: What position has sustainable regional development policymaking had in the Fourth Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plan of the Islamic Republic of Iran? The results indicate that although the Fourth Development Plan, in terms of formulating laws and designing policies, has a progressive, comprehensive, and innovative approach and has attempted to integrate various dimensions of regional development indicators into a coherent and justice-oriented framework with a holistic and integrated view, it has encountered a serious gap between goals and field realities in the implementation and practice stage. Weak institu-tional coordination, lack of executive guarantees, and the dominance of political views over plan-ning logic have led to the achievement of goals being pursued in an unstable and unbalanced man-ner. Excessive reliance on unstable financial resources and inability to build effective institutions have hindered the operationalization of key concepts such as land planning and spatial justice. As a result, instead of realizing an integrated development model, this plan has become a manifestation of the disconnect between ideal planning and inefficient implementation.

Qassem Soleimani, as a prominent figure of resistance and a symbol of Iranian-Islamic identi-ty, as well as the fight against terrorism worldwide, by establishing a modern school, contrib-uted to national solidarity and the promotion of Shia identity. This, in turn, strengthened the national security of the Islamic Republic in both military and political dimensions. Soleimani emerged as a national hero during the Iran-Iraq War and in the fight against ISIS, embodying a model of national champion. Therefore, his independent personality became an influential factor in advancing national security for the Islamic Republic. Considering himself a home-land soldier, Soleimani, while defending Islam, also symbolized the defense of the homeland. Accordingly, the goal of this research was to identify and explain the role and performance of Qassem Soleimani in the national security of the Islamic Republic and answer the question of what role his performance played in Iran's national security. The research methodology was descriptive and analytical, both in terms of the primary objective and the method of data col-lection. The research results indicate that Qassem Soleimani, through the creation of a dis-course of resistance and mobilization of resources, contributed to strengthening the national security of the Islamic Republic.

The concept of Tadbir-e-Manzil (household management) is a concept in history of political thought in Islam. It refers to management of household and the way family members participate in carrying out and regulating the affairs of Manzil (household). With the aim of achieving a new un-derstanding of Tadbir-e-Manzil and its formation and evolution in its semantic domain, this article’s question is a question about the origin and the nature of its concept, its semantic evolution, and its sociopolitical implications within the framework of its conceptual history and in the period of trans-lation movement. The period during which the process of translation causes an environment of cul-tural exchange that introduces a possibility of semantic comparison of concepts in relation to their sociopolitical realities. Studies show that Tadbir-e-Manzil in its conceptual origin and in its socio-political reality in ancient Greece as Oikonomia, has been a support to the concept of Greek citizen-ship, in relation to its ethics and economic production status. And then in the course of its semantic transition and change to the realm of the Islamic Iranian civilization, it has been selected and ap-plied as Tadbir-e-Manzil by Moslem scholars in relation to Islamic sociopolitical realities as well as Islamic acting space of translation movement. In fact, the main issue is that Tadbir-e-Manzil, in an obvious difference with ancient Greek Oikonomia, has been used in accordance with Islamic politi-cal reality based on individual Islamic morality and political obedience. Tadbir-e-Manzil presents Islamic innate and sublime tendencies in achieving prosperity. It also gives continuity to the acting of political reality based on Divansalary as a system managing house and household.

The contemporary history of Iran is deeply intertwined with the problem of the Iranian identi-ty crisis, making it a significant area of study. The main question of this research is: What impact have intellectuals had on the national identity crisis in Iran? This research, using Skinner's hermeneutic method, is conducted on the works and ideas of Hedayat and Shamlou, who are both intellectuals of contemporary history and from two different generations. The presupposition is that intellectual writers have exacerbated the national identity crisis and have had a destructive impact on Iran's national identity in the contemporary era. The results show that Hedayat had a fragmented identity and considered Iran's issues and problems to be a result of superstition born from religion. He believed in a form of extreme archaizing and chal-lenged religious identity in his works. Shamlou, with secular thoughts, opposed what he called "Iranianism" and criticized Iran's cultural roots and symbols. This research not only sheds light on the past but also paves the way for future studies in this area, offering a hopeful outlook on the potential for positive change in Iran's national identity crisis.

Russia's extensive military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and the extensive conse-quences of the continuation of this war have caused the world's food security to face serious challenges due to the fact that these two countries play an important role in the supply and export of grains and oilseeds. This research has sought to use the descriptive-analytical meth-od to test the hypotheses and the library and data collection method to collect data, using the popular Pakistani human security theory, to this Answer the question: What effect did the war between Russia and Ukraine have on the food security of the world? The results indicate that, although the war in Ukraine had quickly disrupted the supply and increased the global price of grains, oilseeds and agricultural inputs, but this process did not continue and therefore with the support measures of countries and International organizations, such as the partial reopen-ing of Black Sea ports through the Black Sea Grain Initiative under the guidance of the Unit-ed Nations, the European Union Solidarity Lines Initiative, increasing global humanitarian efforts, canceling or reducing export restrictions of major food producing and exporting coun-tries. After a period of 4 months since the start of the war in Ukraine, from May 2022 on-wards, the markets have gradually become flexible and adaptable in the face of this crisis, and the prices have returned to the pre-war level by August 2022. This trend improved the adverse effects of the Ukraine crisis on the world's food security significantly and the fear of a contin-uous lack of grain in the world market did not come true.

From the beginning of the age of technology; Every idea, innovation and new invention has helped humans to start a new era of economic growth. This growth has usually been accom-panied by a change in the fundamental principles of nations and their security. In this new era; Artificial intelligence is mentioned as the background of the revolution and the evolution of all human ecosystems in virtual, terrestrial, celestial, etc. spaces. Geopolitical factors seem to play a decisive role in the work process. Predicting an algorithmic revolution that could se-riously challenge the model of global governance is not unexpected. It is here that govern-ments must not only increase their understanding of the potential impact of artificial intelli-gence, but also change their governance model in advancing the technology. This requires understanding the new and future geopolitics of this technology. Therefore, in this study, while examining the current and possible changes in the power factors of governments by arti-ficial intelligence technologies, the new geopolitics of this technology is explained. The meth-od used in this research is descriptive-analytical and library tools, documents and electronic resources have been used to collect data.