The first joint-seminar between the Institute for Middle East Strategic Studies (IMESS) and the Iranian PoliticalScience Association (IPSA) entitled, “The Middle East Studies in Iran”, was held on Thursday, December 22, 2011, at the IMESS. The audience attended were among university professors, senior and visiting research fellows of the IMESS,  members of the Iranian Political Science Association, and also graduate and Ph.D. students. The seminar was organized into two panels. Dr. Hussein Salimi, Associate Professor of Allame Tabatabaee University, and Memebr of the IPSA Board of Directors moderated the first panel. He asserted that the objective of the Seminar was the revision of all published material in the last three decadeson the Middle East issues in Iran, emphasizing the importance of recognizing both the researchers and students’ weaknesses and strengths in order to acquire a more profound insight into the region's issues.

The first speaker, Dr. Kazem Sadjadpour, Associate Professor of the School of International Relations (SIR) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made his presentation entitled, “The Situation of the Middle East Studies in Iran.” He examined the topic in three domains: neology, quality, and promotion. Pointing out the abundance of the Middle East studies in Iran, he underlined the fact that the quality of these studies could still be enhanced in terms of methodology and significance. He also argued that regrettably the corpus of literature on the Middle East studies is mainly consisted of translated texts. In addition, concerning the quality of research, not enough attention has been paid to areas such as, foreign policies of the countries of the region and non-governmental players as well as the fact that less field research has been conducted in these areas too. Regarding promotions, he stated that in order to promote research in the Middle East studies, we need to consider the enhancement of institutional aspects as well as establishing links between theory and practice,  while considering Iran’s security, interests, and status.

Next, Dr. Kayhan Barzgar, Chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations in the Science and Research Campus of the Islamic Azad University and Director of the IMESS, made his presentation on “The Importance of the Middle East Studies in International Relations”. He highlighted the turning points in the formation of the Middle East studies. Dr. Barzegar reviewed the ups and downs in the Middle East studies during the three eras, i.e., the Cold War, post-Cold War, and the developments following the September 11th 2001. His main argument centered around the idea that the Middle East studies have led to a theoretical, conceptual engagement between the two disciplines, i.e., Political Science and International Relations. He contended that the Middle East studies face two major challenges. First, globalizing the issues of the Middle East in the domains such as wars, conflicts, rivalries, democratization, etc., which can justify the initiation of wars supposedly for maintaining the international security, which place too much emphasis on international processes related to the Middle East issues. Second, the way that the Middle East issues are viewed by the governments, political factions, and power-sharing relations in the region as well as other political points of view, i.e., within the limits of political science and comparative studies. Hence, the theoretical and conceptual revision in the Middle East studies should be implemented with the aim of strengthening “regionalism” whereas the interests of all the parties involved both regional and trans-regional, are included.

Finally, Dr. Qhadir Nasri, Assistant Professor at Tarbiyat Moallem  University, made the last presentation of the first session on “Identifying the Shortcomings of The Middle East Studies in Iran: A Critique of Five Approaches, Introduction of a Model.” He started out by raising the question of why the Middle East is afflicted by tensions and why the current research cannot predict potential developments. Accordingly, he continued by examining five existing approaches in the Middle East studies in Iran, i.e., ‘political psychology’, ‘security-strategic’, ‘regional context’, ‘political culture’, and ‘political economy’ and their shortcomings from a methodological perspective. He then set forth his own model for the Middle East studies in Iran entitled, "Intellectual Trending Approach” describing its advantages. At the end, he concluded that serious research work can be performed in this field with the help of scholars through supporting research centers.

In the discussion following the first speeches, Dr. Seyed Abdulamir Nabavi, Assistant Professor at the Socio-Cultural Studies Research Center, as the discussant of the first session, while endorsed the views  voiced by the speakers regarding the need for a conceptual revision of  the Middle East studies, mentioned that the overemphasis in Iran placed on  international trends, as well as the general tendency of viewing things from the international relations standpoint, at the same time causes a lack of attention to political and sociological sciences, political history of the region, identities, values and etc., being the main weakness of  The Middle East studies in Iran.

The first session of the seminar was adjourned by answering the audience's questions.

The second panel was moderated by Mr. Hussein Jaberi Ansari, Director of the Middle East Studies Research Group at the Institute for Political Science and International Relations (IPIS). The first speaker in this panel was Dr. Amir Mohammad Haji Yousefi, Associate Professor at Shahid Beheshti University. He made his presentation on “The Status of Israeli Studies in Iran” and brought up his theoretical discussion entitled, “Scientometrics.” He described the studies he and two of his students, Masoumeh Sani Jousheghani and Masoumeh Talebi, conducted on the issue of Israel and  resources used in this study which comprised of 36 thesis papers from Tehran University, Shahid Beheshti University, and Allame Tabatabaee University, from 1983 to 2010, resources from the National Library and the list of articles published in Iran. He stressed the fact that 90 percent of Iranian articles are non-prescriptive and most of the books written about Israel have concentrated on political issues and neglected aspects of the economy, sociology and international law. Dr. Haji Yousefi and his students have thus attempted to show the strengths and weaknesses of Israeli Studies in Iran and have concluded that not only is it necessary to have supervision over the situation of Israeli Studies among other things, but it is also imperative to gain the greatest level of understanding of Israel as Iran’s main rival.

The second speaker of this panel was Dr. Ali-Reza Soltani, Assistant Professor at the Central Branch of Islamic Azad University in Tehran. He made his presentation on “The Middle East Studies in Iran from a Political Economy's Point of View.” He maintained that the political-economic approach is a novel approach in the Middle East studies, with the help of which a more realistic portrayal of the Middle East can be presented. He continued his talk in two sections, general studies and Iran. Pointing out the weakness of the political-economic and development tendency in Iran, he emphasized the need to encourage the tendency towards the issues in the Middle East in recent decades. He asserted that the 20-Year Vision Plan could be considered as a way out of the previous state for the Middle East studies in Iran. Moreover, reinforcing the political-economic approach can open a new horizon for the Middle East studies in Iran. In effect, this can prepare the ground for regional co-operations.

Next, Dr. Ebrahim Mottaghi, Professor at Tehran University, as the third speaker made his presentation on “Different Theories of Middle East Studies in Iran.” He started by underlining the fact that the Middle East studies in Iran is influenced by the country’s security strategy and that these studies have never been given priority over the strategic ones. He then reviewed the situation before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and stated that in those eras, lack of a theoretical basis had increased functional costs. He maintained that Iran could impose its existence in the Middle East arena through regional Islamism as well as paying attention to research studies.

Finally, Dr. Shoja Ahmadvand, Assistant Professor at Allame Tabatabaee University, as the discussant of the second session, maintained that although all the topics presented in this panel were worthwhile, there are still issues which deserve more attention. Regarding Israeli Studies in Iran, for instance, the topic of Dr. Haji Yousefi’s presentation, he said it would be better if it were to investigate real problems of the Israeli society. He indicated the inattentiveness of Post-Zionism and the dearth of articles in this regards. He also believed that the concentration on three mentioned universities was a subjective decision influenced by personal taste which called for more attention to institutions which have been involved in Israeli studies. Regarding political-economic studies in Iran, he further indicated that the ineffectiveness of the economy is still the most serious problem of the countries of the region, so far though, the studies conducted on the Middle East have basically failed to look at issues from this aspect--only a few studies have been carried out in Iran bearing this fact in mind. Referring to various theories in the Middle East studies and also the idea that before the revolution, there was no similarity between Iran and the Middle East region, he confided that not only should we not merely analyze the Middle East issues from the viewpoint of political science, we must also not argue that Iran’s domain of influence has been limited to the Persian Gulf region.

At the end of the second session, the speakers answered the audience’s questions.

Report: Monireh Hozoori-Mahsa Nouraei

more pictures