Aims
The Journal of Asian Regional Orders Studies (JAROS) is a peer-reviewed scholarly research journal published by Shiraz University Press in collaboration with the Iranian Association of Regional Studies. The journal is dedicated to advancing and strengthening regional studies, with a particular focus on Asia as a strategic macro-region in contemporary international politics and the global economy. Its primary mission is to promote theoretically informed, methodologically rigorous, and evidence-based research on Asian affairs—research that deepens scholarly understanding of developments across the continent while also offering insights and guidance for foreign policymaking, international relations, and regional studies, particularly regarding Iran’s position and interests in Asia.
In addition to welcoming original research produced by the Iranian scholarly community, the journal seeks to expand international academic engagement and encourage innovative ideas from international scholars to contribute to a broader understanding of perspectives and interpretations on the position of Asia and Iran. Accordingly, while the journal publishes articles in Persian accompanied by extended English-language abstracts, it seeks to devote one issue per year to articles written in English. In terms of indexing, the journal aims to establish academic credibility through inclusion in major international databases, particularly Scopus and the Web of Science (WoS).
Scope
1. Explaining the Evolution of Security Orders in Asia’s Subregions
Asia consists of several subregions with distinct security dynamics. Southeast Asia, comprising the ASEAN member states; Northeast Asia, encompassing China, Japan, Taiwan, and the Korean Peninsula; and South Asia, comprising the SAARC region and the South Asian subcontinent, represent the major subregional arenas in Asia. Identifying and analyzing the security opportunities and threats within these areas is therefore of particular importance.
2. Assessing the Role of Extra-Regional Powers in the Asian Regional Order
Asia is shaped not only by internal actors. The presence of the United States as an “extra-regional balancing force,” the European Union as a norm-setting actor in trade and human rights, Russia as a provider of energy and military security in northern and central Asia, and, more recently, China as an architect of a “parallel order” through the Belt and Road Initiative and alternative institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), has contributed to the increasing complexity of the Asian regional order.
3. Comparative Studies of Economic and Trade Orders in Asia
Asia encompasses some of the most diverse patterns of economic integration, ranging from the “market-oriented” model of Southeast Asia to the “contractual and centralized order” associated with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Competing and, in some cases, conflicting regional trade agreements in the region reflect competition over trade, labor, environmental, and intellectual property standards.
4. Examining Identity Crises and Regional Order
Beyond its vast geographical scope, Asia encompasses a highly heterogeneous and diverse array of ethnic, religious, and racial identities. While these identities can provide a basis for cooperation, they have also been sources of numerous political and security challenges and crises within and among states. A deeper and more precise understanding of these identities can therefore contribute to a more accurate interpretation of the political dynamics of the region.
5. Developing Indigenous Frameworks for Analyzing the Asian Order
Most theories of regional order, such as liberal institutionalism, balance-of-threat theory, and security community theory, were developed primarily within European and American contexts and do not fully correspond to the realities of Asia, particularly when they rely on assumptions concerning Westphalian sovereign states or powerful supranational institutions. In Asia, concepts such as “consultation and consensus,” “flexibility,” and “informal networked order” may prove more effective. One of the journal’s objectives is therefore to encourage research that reconstructs theories of regionalism based on Asian realities, including the role of diasporas, informal political economies, and the influence of historical hierarchies such as the Sinocentric tributary system or patterns of dependence on India.
6. Explaining Iran’s Role and Position in the Restructuring of Asian Regional Orders
For geopolitical, geoeconomic, and geocultural reasons, Iran is inextricably connected to the regional orders of Asia. Understanding Iran’s position, capacities, capabilities, and challenges in interacting with this strategic macro-region is therefore both essential and unavoidable. One of the journal’s objectives is to identify and explain Iran’s position in the restructuring of regional orders and to assess the extent to which the country’s foreign policy corresponds to the accelerating transformations taking place across these regions.
The Journal of Asian Regional Orders Studies (JAROS) does not define Asia strictly in geographical terms as encompassing the area extending from the Eastern Mediterranean to the western Pacific Ocean. Rather, the journal adopts a geopolitical conception of Asia. In this sense, Asia refers to a set of regions whose emergence and prominence in the field of international relations have intensified in the post–Cold War era and which are distinguished by shared security, political, economic, and identity-related concerns. The journal’s principal Asian subregions are:
The journal particularly welcomes research adopting comparative, transnational, or interregional approaches to Asia and examining Asian developments in connection with broader global structures and processes.
In general, the journal does not consider articles that:
Such manuscripts may not be sent for peer review at the initial screening stage if they are deemed inconsistent with the journal’s aims and scope.