TY - JOUR ID - 51272 TI - Changes in the Demographic Structure of Islamic Republic of Iran: Pathology and Assessment of Its Potentialities in Security Issues JO - Human Geography Research JA - JHGR LA - en SN - 2008-6296 AU - Mottaghi, Afshin AD - Assistant professor of political geography, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran Y1 - 2015 PY - 2015 VL - 47 IS - 3 SP - 557 EP - 575 KW - Buzan theory KW - Iran KW - population KW - security DO - 10.22059/jhgr.2015.51272 N2 - Extended Abstract   Introduction Explanation of influencing affairs such as war and international crisis, collapse of the bipolar world order, and structural change in national and international security is easier than that of social, economic and political circumstances in the world. One of these issues is evolutions in the population structure. This issue, today, is one of the most important challenges in the security of the states. In one hand, the structure and peculiarities of the population such as growth, age and gender distribution, migration, marginalization and informal communities, inequality in social services, environmental pollution, and traffic, waste of resources and excessive consumption of energy are very important in the national policy. On the other hand, these issues have entered into the realm of global security and international relations and they have created serious problems for states. Generally, population issues have a deep relation (director indirect) with security issues and play essential role in weakening or strengthening of the national and international security, as well as in organizing of politics of the security of states in internal and external levels. Demographic factor can be effective in assessment of the security and political power, according to coordinates of national social characteristics. Therefore, macro planning is important in each country according to population data (the scales at local, national, regional and international levels). For example, the balance or imbalance of population structure can affect the issues of education, welfare, services, unemployment and, generally, the national security issues at micro and macro levels. The aim of this paper is to investigate the damages and potentialities of the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran according to the structural changes in population in order to obtain greater recognition of security issues with a better understanding of population and its properties such as reduction or increase in population, population distribution and changes in population age pyramid and etc. Methodology Methodology of this study is descriptive- analytical and required information has been collected through library research. The information gathered from sources such as books, magazines, online articles, and newspapers. Results and discussion The fundamental question of this study is that what are the impacts of population structure changes of the Islamic Republic of Iran on its security in national, regional and international levels? To investigate the issue, we have used the theoretical approach of Barry Buzan. This theory is a new framework in security studies. It assesses different dimensions of security, i.e., political, military, economic, environmental and social dimensions. Results of the study as a descriptive-analytic research in methodology show that Iran is getting to experience the new demographic system in which the effects on the security are including the unequal distribution of population, migration, rapid urbanization, transition of age structure, the elderly, families change, gender inequality, poverty and inequality, environmental degradation and so on. In general, a weak economy will directly affect the structure of the population. Therefore, national security procedures will have to deal with the challenges as well. Reduction in military ability and power along with the challenges in population will affect the problematizing hardware security. For example, it will problematize the potential of the effective protection from the borders of the country or defending against military invasions. However, any internal challenges which bring changes in population structure will challenge the country's security in the outer surface. Conclusion In Buzan’s approach, security aspects have five dimensions of military, economy, society, culture, politics and environment. According to him, the threats such as invasion of a country to the territorial integrity of other countries, uncertainty in the stability of the state organization; feeling of un-identity in social groups, climate change, loss of biodiversity and forests, expansion of deserts, decline of the ozone layer, growth of the unemployment, bearish trend of welfare and production of added value are objective constant and measurable threats.  For this reason the Islamic Republic of Iran experiences the new demographic system with effects on its security. UR - https://jhgr.ut.ac.ir/article_51272.html L1 - https://jhgr.ut.ac.ir/article_51272_4bbdccc17371947bc7faa8c5f436ffb4.pdf ER -