Supranational Region’s Status in the Five-Year Development Plans of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Document Type : Original Article from Result of Thesis

Authors

1 Political Science, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Professor at Political Science, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

In the contemporary era, regionalism has been a popular approach for governments in tandem with globalization or as its alternative. Iran has been an international country and a regional power thanks to its geographical and historical expediencies. Since the very first year of the twentieth century's last decade, as the soviet’s occupation of Afghanistan ended and central Asia and southern Caucasus republics gained independence, Iran could have promoted its regional place. Nevertheless, despite its unique geographical position, cultural and civic affinity with the aforementioned countries, and six five-year development plans, the Islamic Republic of Iran has failed to act as a regional pole and take advantage of its regional capabilities regarding those countries over the last three decades. Our primary question is, “What role does the supranational region play in Iran's five-year development plans?” Using frequency and content analysis methods, we studied the content, articles, and sections of six five-year development plans. Our findings indicate that the term “region” has no clear definition; the level of attention paid to it varies frequently; and the region's key components, constituent areas, and countries differ considerably from one plan to another. As a practical result, we suggest that the “Iranian civilization zone,” the geographical-cultural region surrounding Iran, be defined as Iran's target region and a specific instance of the supranational region in Iran's macro-planning and macro-policymaking.

Highlights

Introduction

Afghanistan was liberated from Soviet military occupation in the last decade of the twentieth century. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Asian and South Caucasus republics emerged as independent countries in Iran's northeast and northwest. These developments formed a new macro-, or supranational, region beyond the Iranian borders and transmuted Iran’s place in the region. The outstanding geographical position of Iran; mentioned countries’ need for a link to the world, and Iran’s rich underground resources, economic power, and more advanced industries, and also the cultural and civic affinities between Iran and those countries provided a favorable context for Iran’s attention to the region and playing the role of a regional pole. However, the Islamic Republic of Iran failed to use its place despite this context, its capacities, and composting six five-year development plans in the last three decades. The emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the infiltration of the Zionist regime in the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the falling behind Turkey in establishing extensive economic, political, and cultural relations with the mentioned countries bear witness to this.

This brings into mind the central question of this research, “What role does the supranational region play in Iran's five-year development plans?”. A preliminary study gives rise to two secondary questions: ‘Do five-year development plans specify the number of countries and zone of the region?’ and ‘Has the instances of and the term used for “region” remained the same through development plans?’

These questions give rise to one fundamental assumption: “the term region is a dynamic concept with no precise definition or boundaries in Iran's five-year development plans. “It also gives rise to two subsidiary assumptions:

“The number of nations and component zones of a region is not stated in the five-year development plans; There is no instance of and a persistent term for 'region' in six five-year development plans, and "region" was referred to under several names”.

 

Methodology

Five-year development plans are developed in Iran’s Presidential Office based on the general state policies issued by the state’s supreme leader. Once ratified in the parliament, it becomes enacted law. This gives us a suitable option to find the answers to our questions and examine our research assumptions. We tested the mentioned assumptions using frequency and content analysis methods and social constructivism framework to study the research subject. We tried to reach our goal of specifying the place of ‘region’ in the development plans by confining the meaning of ‘region’ to ‘supranational’ or ‘similar notions’ and comparing their use in each plan.

 

Results and discussion

Our findings show that, statistically, the term ‘region’ has been mentioned in 19 articles and 20 sections of the total 719 articles and 562 sections of all six five-year development plans to mean ‘supranational’.  It is used 30 times, and other terms used to represent ‘supranational region’ are used 7 times, totaling 37 times. The other terms were ECO (Economic Cooperation Organization), Iranian cultural zone, cultural Iran, and southwest Asian countries.

Regarding the instance of the region, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s 20-Year Vision Plan, region means ‘southwest Asia.’ Calling it a region is debatable. First, southwest Asia often, though not always, means the middle-east. Second, there is no consensus regarding the number of countries in this region; and third, by careful examination of ‘other countries in the region and southwest Asia’ in section C, article 105 of the sixth plan, it is clear that at least in this plan ‘region’ does not exclusively mean southwest Asia.

If ‘southeast Asia’ here was meant to be a zone of interaction, cooperation, and regional integration; the current situation and history of regional competitions, the existence of rival countries, and in some cases, hidden animosity with Iran render the extensive geographical area defined as southwest Asia void of the characteristics of the region and unable to provide a context for regional cooperation and integration. The national GDP and import and export statistics of the countries in this region and central Asia reveal that the Persian Gulf south coast subsystem countries’ threat-opportunity and cost-benefit positions are different from Iran and its eastern, western, southern, and northern neighbors.

But if ‘southeast Asia’ just means a set of countries to compare and measure Iran’s position, we lack an actual geographical-cultural region possessing regional characteristics in the age of new regionalism.

Such a region would allow Iran to integrate with its countries and enjoy the benefits of regionalism in Iran’s foreign policy.  Due to its geographical affinities and complementary political, economic, and social structures, the Iranian civilization zone has become a natural region throughout history. It is literally a full-blown region. According to constructivism theory, countries inheriting the culture and civilization of Iran in this geographical zone form an evident and genuine instance of such a region. However, the composers of the five-year plans failed to recognize these countries as a region.

 

Conclusions

Studying the place of ‘region’ in the development plans, we can conclude that region is often used vaguely and indirectly, and the attention it gets varies greatly in those plans.  We can now answer our main research question and confirm our central assumption. ‘Region’ is a varying concept with no specific boundaries and countries in the development plans. Its constituent components and number of countries are not defined, and the Islamic Republic of Iran has no ‘specific definition for or an instance of a region’ or ‘a specific macro-policy or regional strategy.

This ambiguity in the mental image of the region is a comprehensive economic, political, cultural, and security loss. It gives away Iran’s regional opportunities to the rivals such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and enemies such as the Zionist regime. To avoid such loss, we suggest, as the applied result of our research, to define ‘the Iranian civilization zone’, the geographical-cultural region surrounding Iran, as the target region of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a specific instance of a part in the future macro-planning and macro-policymaking of Iran. Integrating Iran with other countries of this zone, including Pakistan and Afghanistan in the east, Central Asia and Caucasus region countries in the north, and Iraq and Syria in the west, paves the way to establishing the ‘Union of Countries that Inherited the Iranian Civilization’ (UCIIC).

Keywords

Main Subjects

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