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111. Accession of Iran to the World Trade Organization: A Legal-Political Overview

Author:
S. Jalal Alavi
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Center for Strategic Research (CSR)
Abstract:
Iran's decision to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) is now 14 years old, among the longest cases in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and WTO history. Given the fact that negotiations have not yet started, it may be the longest accession process when Iran finally joins the Organization. This paper attempts to shed some light on the procedural and substantive aspects of the case. A brief account of the WTO accession procedures and a quick glance on the history of the Iran's application provides solid background for the more analytical parts of the paper. It will be shown how unnecessary application of “consensus rule” to the purely procedural stage of accession (establishment of the working party) cost Iran 9 years. Iran could have become full member during the same period in a less demanding negotiating context. The paper will also look briefly into the political environment surrounding Iran's application for membership. The paper also presents a critical outlook on the negotiations for accession and the accession outcomes. It criticizes WTO-plus commitments/WTO-minus rights paradigm which now prevails over the accession negotiations and argues that this paradigm contradicts the contractual nature of the WTO Agreement. It emphasizes that an acceding country should have a clear picture about rights and obligations of the membership. That should be the WTO Agreement as it is. The balance of rights and obligations (terms of contract) should not be changed in the course of negotiations.
Political Geography:
Iran

112. The Legal and Political Context of UNESCO's 2005 Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions – Will It Be Good for Iran?

Author:
Janet E. Blake
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Center for Strategic Research (CSR)
Abstract:
The Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions was adopted by the UNESCO General Conference in October 2005 and, by July 2010, 112 States plus the European Community had become Parties to this Convention. This is a relatively healthy number but, at approximately half of the Member States of the Organisation, reflects that there remains a degree of uncertainty among States as to the potential national and international policy and legal impact on Parties. Thus far, Iran has chosen not to ratify this Convention and there continues to be a national debate on this question with a wide range of views expressed. One important aim of this article, then, is to consider and address these concerns through examining both the international (Cultural) policy context of the Convention's negotiation and the rights it grants to and the duties it places on Parties. The 2005 Convention shares an ancestry with the 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in that both of them reflect different aspects of the 2001 Declaration on Cultural Diversity. Understanding this fact can provide some guidance as to the orientation and purpose of this treaty in that it addresses the rights of States and their international duty to preserve the aspect of cultural diversity that relates to the cultural marketplace. At the same time, it is by no means a 'pure' human rights text in its character or its intention as this article will show. After having examined the history of the text's development and adoption and the wider legal and political contexts within which this took place, the article will then consider the direct implications for Iran of ratification of this important international Convention.
Political Geography:
Europe

113. Multilateral Diplomacy: Theory and Practice of Regional and International Organizations (Book Review)

Author:
Bagher Asadi
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Center for Strategic Research (CSR)
Abstract:
A 3-volume work on the theory and practice of multilateral diplomacy, written by two senior career diplomats speaks for itself. It's a huge, serious work of research, based on over two decades of teaching and complemented with the accumulated wisdom and discretion of long years of practical diplomatic experience and actual, active engagement in multilateral processes. I have found introducing the work to non challenge; there is so much information and analysis on so many issues in the first two volumes that can hardly be captured in a short narrative. That I will not even attempt at; instead I career multilateral diplomat myself, highlight the significance of the objective outlook espoused by the authors – even if between the lines.

114. The Atlas of Persian Gulf Maps: A Journey Through Time and History (Book Review)

Author:
Reza Nazarahari
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Center for Strategic Research (CSR)
Abstract:
The semi-closed body of water, an inland sea of a length of 989 kilometers and a size of some 251,000 km², lying to the south of the Iranian plateau, connected in the eastern end to the Gulf of Oman by the Strait of Hormuz; and marked in the western end by the major river delta of the Shatt al-Arab, which carries the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris, is the Persian Gulf. For a host of historical reasons – beyond the purview of this brief essay – the Persian Gulf, as a water channel, appears to have been found of particular interest to geologists, archaeologists, geographers, merchants, excursionists, scholars, and politicians, both in the distant and recent past, and of course, presently. While historians can continue their scholarly interest and work on the reasons for the significance of the water channel in the past, for its critical importance present time and certainly in the foreseeable future, both to the countries sharing coastline with it as well as supra their own, is related to the huge oil and gas reserves in the area and international geo emanating from this very unique feature of the Persian Gulf will continue to be a major source of energy throughout the third millennium, the area will most probably continue to preserve its critical significance, both to the energy energy-importing countries across the world, with all the associated political, economic, security-strategic, and even military, implications during the past several decades.
Political Geography:
Oman and Persia

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