Explaining the fundamental geopolitical components affecting foreign policy with the fuzzy Delphi technique

پژوهش ‎های جغرافیای سیاسی

Article 6, Volume 8, Issue 4 - Serial Number 32, March 2024, Pages 117-141   

Document Type: مقالات علمی -پژوهشی

DOI: 10.22067/pg.2023.83227.1221

Authors

Mostafa Sarabi Torbat Heydarieh^{* 1}; Hamid Reza Mohammadi²; Alireza Mehrabi²

¹PhD student in political geography of Shahid Beheshti University. Tehran. Iran.

²Associate Professor of Political Geography, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran. Iran

Abstract

Foreign policy is the use of political influence to persuade other countries to exercise their legislative power in the manner desired by the respective government. Geopolitics is a branch of geography and political science that deals with the planning of a country's security policy based on geographical factors. By analyzing these factors, geopolitics assesses the existing spheres of power and tries to relate a country's policy to them. Therefore, knowing these factors is essential in explaining the foreign policy of a country. In this article, with the analytical-descriptive method and the fuzzy Delphi technique, 11 academic and political elites have been selected in a snowball method to identify the fundamental geopolitical variables effective in foreign policy. The results of this research indicate that the geopolitical components affecting foreign policy are classified into two main categories, tangible and intangible. The tangible indicators are: (1) geographical location (2) population and manpower (3) natural resources (4) industrial and agricultural production capacity (5) military power. Intangible indicators are: (1) political, economic and social structure (2) educational and technical level (3) national spirit (4) international strategic position. Therefore, as long as there is politics in the world, geopolitics will remain an important consideration and influence in foreign policy.

Keywords

Geopolitics; foreign policy; fuzzy Delphi; weight of geopolitics; geopolitical schools

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