Institute of Political and International Studies
Background, goals and missions
The Institute of Political and International Studies of the Foreign Affairs Ministry was established in 1983 under the title of the Political and International Studies Office and was located in the former club of the Foreign Affairs Ministry. This center has been responsible for various tasks under different titles such as “Education and Research Deputy “and” Education and International Research Center". This center has determined its missions and goals in the frame of 3 clear program namely think-tank, educational and evidential programs.
In the studies field, the central mission of this center has been to help collecting, organizing and developing research and investigating in regional and international fields and help to better understand of Iran's foreign policy. In the education field, this center tries to provide updated knowledge directly and indirectly through classrooms and educational workshops to students and foreign relations practitioners through the deputy of Education and the International Relations College and help knowledge increasing in this field. And in this regard, it is trying to attract international cooperation with similar academic and educational institutions outside of Iran.
In the documents field, this center, having about 50 million copies of first-hand documents on the Iran's foreign relations history, is a valuable source for researches history of Iran's foreign relations. This center moves towards helping the national memory of the country's foreign policy by preserving domestic and foreign documents, study resources, as well as first-hand copies of the international relations history. The Institute of Political and International Studies follows its goals and missions through three research, educational and executive deputy and the International Relations College.
The pillars of the Institute of Political and International Studies
In the study and think tank activities field, Institute of Political and International Studies was established in 1983 and has become an international brand as the most important think tank in the foreign policy field in Iran. The study office while conducting research on foreign policy and international relations, has extensive collaborations with domestic and foreign research centers and think tanks in the form of various meetings, round tables and conferences.
Over the past four decades, Institute of Political and International Studies has played an important role in the expansion of literature in the international, regional and foreign policy studies field in Iran. This office has tried to understand the regional and international developments through holding bilateral roundtables and bilateral and multilateral meetings and conferences with the participation of philosophers and researchers of political science and international relations inside and outside the country. The Institute of Political and International Studies publishes the results of its research and studies through the publication of various books and Journals, including the Events and Analysis quarterly magazine, the Foreign Policy Quarterly magazine, the Central Asia and Caucasus Quarterly, the History of Foreign Relations Quarterly, and also the center's website as a Virtually think tank is available for the public. Also, an important part of the office's products in the form of policy is provided to the decision-making institutions. In the last structural change, the Political and International Studies Office has been located under the Research Deputy of The Institute of Political and International Studies.
In regarding with the continuation and updating of diplomats and employees working in the Foreign Affairs Ministry knowledge, the educational deputy of The Institute of Political and International Studies has the mission of providing update knowledge to diplomats and employees of the foreign policy system by holding courses and training classes and taking advantage of the experiences of veteran colleagues in the form of transfer of experiences and by holding workshops, seminars and webinars in person and non-person for resident foreign diplomats and other countries, while exchanging experiences, provide a platform for familiarizing resident foreign diplomats and interested people from other countries with the policies and approaches of our country and help increasing knowledge in this field. The two diplomatic training offices and the international educational cooperation office are in charge of these tasks and duties:
A) International Educational Cooperation office:
- Holding short-term training courses for foreign diplomats with the diplomatic academies, international organizations and non-governmental organizations of other countries cooperation;
- Sending young diplomats to participate in short-term training courses in other countries
B) Diplomatic Education office
This office mainly deals with need assessment, planning and training courses implementation while serving colleagues working in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, including political and non-political employees and service and support forces. These trainings are implemented under the title of short-term and modular courses as service during the year in person or non-person:
Homework courses are compiled and implemented mainly based on the statutes of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and mainly with the aim of promoting the employees’ political positions working in the political field. These courses include the period of promotion to the affiliated position and third secretary to the first secretary, and the first counselor to third counselor and the period of promotion to the position of ambassador.
General, occupational and cultural courses, which are mainly held for employees of non-political ranks and also jointly for both ranks throughout the year, include the vestibule training course, the course of converting the status from contractual to official, and the test of rank change for candidates of change ranks from administrative to political, there are educational orientation courses before sending to the mission, briefing classes for diplomatic requirements and transfer of experience, cultural training courses for colleagues and their families, etc.
In addition, the Diplomatic Training office is responsible for planning and implementing briefing training courses for employees of other agencies and their families who are sent to permanent missions abroad.
- International Relations College
The International Relations College is an educational institution that has been responsible for teaching political and diplomatic sciences with professional and specialized goals in the country for the last one hundred years. The first loop in this chain was the "Political School" which was established in Tehran in 1278 solar year by the initiative of Nasrallah Khan Moshir al-Doleh, the foreign minister of that date, with the aim of training political men and agents of the country's foreign policy during the time of Muzaffaruddin Shah Qajar. This school work was later followed by Law and Political Sciences School, the Law and Political Sciences college of Tehran University, and then the Higher Education Institute of International Relations affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was followed, and finally this task was assigned to the International Relations office. A significant number of the diplomatic staff of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and a number of international affairs experts of other organizations during the years after the Islamic Revolution are from the International Relations office.
Currently, the International Relations college as a progressive institution in the higher education field and professional international affairs, "Diplomacy and International Organizations", "Regional Studies", "International Relations" and "World Studies" (India)" majors are offered at the master's level, all four fields are subcategories of political science and international relations. Accepting of students in these fields is done through the national entrance exam. One of the important and unique features of this college is the use of first-class professors of international relations courses in the country's universities and also experienced diplomats from the Foreign Affairs Ministry for teaching. In addition to students studying in a scientific and academic atmosphere and using a specialized library, communication with various parts of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and passing internships course in one of the over sea representations are other features of this college to train the future diplomatic staff of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Scientific cooperation with domestic and foreign universities and educational institutions, especially with the United Nations University, is another activity of this college. Signing a memorandum of understanding for scientific and educational cooperation with similar level colleges and educational institutions, sending councils and accepting foreign councils, and exchanging professors and students are other activities of the college.
The Executive and Documents deputy of The Institute of Political and International Studies has the duty of supporting of research and study activities, training, holding domestic and international conferences and conventions, as well as the preservation and maintenance of historical documents and the maintenance of the green space and buildings of the for Political and International Studies Center. The offices under this deputy include: Executive Affairs Department, Document Preservation office, and Specialized Library.
The Document Preservation office is considered to be the oldest historical document archive center of Iran. During The presidency of Amir Kabir in the Qajar period, the first efforts were made to organize and setting the archives of the Foreign Affairs Ministry documents. The current building of the Document Preservation Department was built in 1999 with an area of more than 7000 m2 in order to be responsible for the preservation and archiving of documents. This documents archive set with about 50 million copies of first-hand documents from the history of Iran's foreign relations, is a valuable source for researches on the history of Iran's foreign relations. The main activities of this office are as follows:
1- Examining, identifying, classifying, preserving written, imaginary, visual, audio documents, albums, stamps, seals, books and manuscripts, old publications and magazines, maps, paintings, calligraphy and any other historical works belonging to the Foreign Affairs Ministry through organizing, refining, disinfecting, disinfesting and restoring documents, indexing, scanning, digitizing, documenting and other similar actions;
2- Examining, retrieving and organizing documents in historical, social fields, and issues related to foreign policy and relations with other countries in order to clarify the content of documents and establish communication between them and provide document services for conducting research to applicants, based on regulations of Foreign Affairs Ministry;
3- holding and participating in conferences and document exhibitions related to celebrating relations with countries, as well as active participation in internal and external document exhibitions related to relations and foreign policy.
The history of the Foreign Affairs Ministry library establishment goes back to the early years of the 20th century and a few years after the establishment of the Political Science School, which was established within that school, and then in the following years, was located in the central building structure of the Foreign Affairs Ministry. After the victory of the Iran Islamic Revolution, in order to provide access to the experts of the relevant ministry, professors, students and researchers to the latest scientific and new resources, it was decided to update the library and by collecting and organizing written, visual and audio resources, the library was established in a new form in 1999 AD (1378 solar year). One of the characteristics of this library is its rich scientific resources in the political science fields in English and Persian languages, which has made this library different from other libraries.
Now, the specialized library of the Foreign Affairs Ministry provides services to the personnel of this ministry and the country research community with two sets of the Shahid Rajaee Library located in building number 9 of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Shahid Bahonar Library located in The Institute of Political and International Studies of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The activities of the Executive Affairs office include the following cases: holding meetings, round tables and specialized domestic and international meetings in the fields related to foreign policy; coordination of the ceremonial affairs of meetings and programs that are carried out in the complex of The Institute of Political and International Studies; management and preservation, maintenance and take care of buildings, green spaces and facilities and buildings and property of the center; and doing executive affairs of domestic and international conferences.