Towards a New Economic Diplomacy Strategy; Turning from West Asian Geopolitics of Fear towards the Asian Geo-economics of Mutual Prosperity

Mousavi Shafaee, Seyyed Masoud; Shahveisi, Sasan

Towards a New Economic Diplomacy Strategy; Turning from West Asian Geopolitics of Fear towards the Asian Geo-economics of Mutual Prosperity

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Associate Professor, Department of International Relations, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, Economics Research Institute, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The decreasing willingness and ability of ‘the great powers’ to engage directly in regional matters has meant that the result of the current dispersion of power has been the fluidization of the international order. Hence, new spaces have opened for emerging regional powers to exercise action and become more active in trying to increase their sphere of influence in various regions of the world. Amidst these conditions, the geo-economical approach of East Asia based on cooperation and mutual prosperity which has unleashed previously hidden opportunities, has brought relative order and stability to that region. On the other hand, we observe the prevailing dominance of geopolitics of terror, instability, war, and conflict in West Asia. The international position and geographical location of Iran has located this country in the middle of these two regions, with opposing approaches to geopolitics; One is Asia in its general sense, which seems to be more inclined towards developing a flourishing geo-economy, and the other is West Asia, which is caught in the geopolitical trap of fear.
In light of the foregoing, the modus operandi of this paper started by collecting data through document examination and analyzed them using a descriptive-analytical method. The results of this study indicate that in the current climate, turning away from the West Asian geopolitics of fear towards (East) Asian prosperity should be the main objective of country in terms economic diplomacy. Furthermore, the paper argues that this objective should be pursued through a framework of mutual benefits with neighboring countries.

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