Examining the Islamic Republic of Iran's Grounds for Joining the SCO and its Consequences

Document Type : Original Independent Original Article

Authors

1 MA. of Basic Sciences, Farabi Faculty of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

2 Invited Assistant Prof. Department of International Relations, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran.

Abstract

The national security of a country is the result of both domestic and international developments in that country. Governments join economic, security, and other treaties to improve their national security. One of the regional treaties that Iran has joined as a permanent member is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Thus, the question to be addressed is: What effects does the Islamic Republic of Iran's permanent membership in the SCO have on its national security? In this regard, we have employed defensive realism prepositions to cover the study's objectives. This study uses a descriptive-analytical method, with data collected through a documentary and desk research approach. The findings reveal that the Islamic Republic of Iran's policy toward the United States' maximum pressure is centered on resistance, as well as continuing its strategic regional actions, which rely on a hard balancing approach and coalition with neighboring countries. Consequently, Iran's strong presence in the SCO may eventually improve its national security.

Highlights

Introduction

Environmental considerations are essential components that determine a country's foreign and security policy approach. In fact, all governments' foreign and security policies are inextricably linked to environmental factors. As a result, external variables such as a country's geopolitical location, the structure of the international system, and the structure or regional security environment may all have an impact on its security strategy. Environmental security processes have impacted the Islamic Republic of Iran's security policy due to their effect on internal factors. Since the BARJAM agreement failed and the US, as its most important participant, withdrew from it, Hassan Rouhani's government's negotiations with other JCPOA members failed, and the US used the maximum pressure sanctions strategy against Iran, leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran decided to pursue a regionalism strategy and establish relations with its eastern coalition partners. Signing the 25-year Iran-China contract and the treaties between Iran-Iraq and Shanghai Cooperation Organization are the results of such relations. In this respect, this study will examine the concepts and facts of SCO to provide a reasoned answer to this question: Thus, the question to be addressed is: What effects does the Islamic Republic of Iran's permanent membership in the SCO have on its national security?

This study's hypotheses are as follows: According to the realistic approach, which is the Iranians' foreign policy in most circumstances, the Islamic Republic of Iran seeks to enhance its dominance in the area and thereby improve national security; due to its defensive realism, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been oriented toward the regional balance of power and is attempting to resist global pressures by expanding its power level in the area, and as a consequence, it has raised its influence and national security in the region.

To emphasize the importance of this project, consider the following security parameters: Iran's strategic and geopolitical isolation; the need for convergence with neighboring countries; and economic factors, specifically the West's ruthless anti-Iran sanctions and the need for IRI economic development, as contributors to Islamic Iran's survival in the world order. The overall aim of this study is to avoid squandering IRI's current opportunities and challenges, in line with improving Iran's ties with countries all over the world, as well as neighboring countries, and eventually increasing IRI's quantitative and qualitative global power and national security, based on the significance of the SCO and influential power on regional developments, within the framework of Iran's foreign policy.

 

Methodology

The descriptive-analytical method was used in this study to investigate the issue under consideration. The defensive realistic theory has been used to prove the given hypothesis.

 

Results and Discussion

Based on the abovementioned approach, one may deduce the best method for IRI in dealing with present risks. To that aim, establishing coalitions by the IRI increases the significance and is consistent with providing security and combating the destructive plans of power-hungry governments focused on altering the status quo. Such a move becomes significant in response to the security riddle created by the rise and empowerment of US military facilities in Iran's neighboring nations, particularly in the Persian Gulf littoral states. Defensive realism leads to the theoretical expectation that the IRI has benefited from the dynamism of power and security in line with its interests by adopting an active defensive approach and reinforcing unification and coalitions while reacting to western states' sanctions, particularly US hegemony, in collaboration with regional and trans-regional players. In this respect, defensive realists argue that the offensive capability of the US and its allies, as well as the geographical closeness of the zone of confrontations and operations to IRI, depict all of the present threatening elements. In such circumstances, establishing balance is the proper and necessary policy in response to Iran's sovereignty and interests challenge.

SCO member countries account for about 25% of global GDP. SCO is also one of the only organizations with concurrent economic, security, and military goals that have not succumbed to Anglo-Saxon civilizationol1. The SCO has built its development capacity on the backs of nations that are independent of Western hegemony. This important feature, together with the enforcement of Iran's strategy of inclination toward Eastern countries, has prompted Iran's permanent membership in SCO to deal a blow against the West's strategy of restriction of Iran, leading the West to believe that Iran's strategy complements empowerment of a new bloc and unites eastern and western Asia in the face of Western hegemony. More crucially, Iran's participation in the agreement, the world's biggest geographical union, opens the door to increased security cooperation within the framework of a collective security pact, which is critical given Iran's placement along the North-South and West-East corridors. The location of Iran at the heart of these two corridors, in addition to Iran's special status in energy provision, which is much needed by China and India (as two important SCO member states), and alongside mutual strategic accords concluded with China and India, such as the 25-year cooperation agreement with China, is consistent with the mutual benefits of Iran's presence in SCO.

 

Conclusion

Given the region's geopolitical status, IRI has always dealt with security, economic, and cultural threats, such as US-led Western anti-Iran pressures; separatist ethnic developments in neighboring states; and plot lines by Zionist coastal states, particularly within the framework of military and intelligence treaties on the establishment of US bases in these countries. As a result, with due regard for Iran's foreign policy national and transnational goals for strengthening national security, Iranian officials should make an additional effort and shift toward regional integration (balance of threat rather than the balance of power), relying on defensive realism principles. On this premise, Iran has joined the SCO and is leaning toward Eastern states to counteract Western antagonism. Thus, by implementing appropriate policies and plans, as well as solid management, Iran may first strengthen its infrastructures, manage its national production sector, and raise its exports by using the right beddings of SCO member states. Furthermore, Islamic Iran can increase its status in the world order and neutralize threats posed by the US, which is hell-bent on sabotaging Iran's reputation, by developing Islamic Iran's security potential through cooperation with SCO member states such as China and Russia, which significantly contribute to the formation of UN Iran policy. According to the realist hypothesis, the more a country's national security in the international order, the greater its negotiating power in the global instability.

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Main Subjects

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