INDO-IRANIAN TIES: THICKER THAN OIL
This article examines the nature and extent of the Indo-Iranian relationship. Interest in this bilateral relationship piqued in the United States due to the policy debate surrounding the United States-India civilian nuclear agreement and the ever-deepening Iranian nuclear crisis. While it has become de rigueur to suggest that this relationship is centered on hydrocarbon politics, this article contends that the Indo-Iranian relationship has much more to do with India’s great power aspirations and concomitant expansive agenda for Central Asia. This article concludes with some reflections on the limits of this relationship and the importance of India to international efforts to contain Iran.
Indo‐Iranian relations 1947–2000
Abstract India and Iran have interacted with each other since time immemorial. During the post‐independence period, their relations passed through strains. During the 1950s, Indo‐Iranian relations remained cool because of Iran's alignment with the West and India's policy of non alignment. Their relations however started improving during the 1960s and 1970s, except during Ayatollah Khomeini's period. After the end of the Cold War, common security threat perceptions brought India and Iran closer. Iran was deeply concerned with the US ties with the Arab states, and unstable states to its north. As a result Iran wanted to promote regional ties. India's main security dilemmas arose from international pressures and regional rivalries. All this led to the convergence of their interests, the main areas being—energy, Afghanistan, Central Asia and business. As their interests coincide the two started making concious efforts to improve ties by keeping up high level contacts, which was followed by very important visits, particularly, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao's visit to Iran in 1993 and President Hashemi Rafsanjani's visit to India in 1995. The Indo‐Iranian equation is a significant evolving factor affecting regional politics in South and West Asia. Both the countries have realised that their relations were not determined only by the issue of Islam but extend much farther. The mutual desire for friendship and cooperation has lessened the misunderstandings and both the countries can now look forward to a more stable relationship.
Arab Uprisings and the Outstanding Return to Democracy: Tunisia as a Model
In the wake of the Middle Eastern crises, the Tunisian case in focus has been doted as a unique phenomenon being that it was the Genesis of the revolution that ultimately spread across the Middle East like wild fire, but has eventually heralded a new dawn as democracy has incidentally returned to the Empire. This literature therefore looks closely at the extent to which the ‘DignityRevolution’ has been instrumental in the Middle East uprisings, which have brought an end to dynastic autocracies. The literature zeros in on the Tunisian uprising which has attracted global concerns, sympathy and has sparked interests in the international arena. The literature finds that the people hold colossal prospect in the uprising and its resultant effect, as it paved the way for the revolutionist to generate, gather and disseminate information on the condition of the entire region to the international community. The people in this context were of utmost importance and played a very crucial role in the creation of awareness, mobilization of protesters and utmost determining the direction of the uprising and also ensuring a speedy return to democratic rule. The paper submits that the role of the people in ensuring that the ruins of the uprising is not left littering around and democracy restored is highly commendable and should be a model for all other Arab countries involved in the revolution.