explaining the effects of geographical scales on the formation of regionalism phenomenon in south east iran

1. introduction from cultural and land point of view, national heterogeneity is the characteristic of many countries. so that the vast majority of countries are facing regionalism based on their width and number of population which sometimes they challenge the legitimacy of the government. because of its special geographical situation, iran has been the dwelling of people with various language and ethnicity during its the history. for this reason, the interaction among these groups of various cultures and identities has created a multiple culture. it is also is influenced by political and thought changes of indian subcontinents and the crisis situation in pakistan and afghanistan so that there have been some regionalism cases which finally resulted in terror activities and security challenges in sistan and baluchestan in the recent decade. baluchstan region as a part of sistan and baluchistan province has faced a series of regionalism in the recent decade due to the following reasons: its religion distinction, its geographical distance from the central government, its neighborhood with the two poor and war torn countries afghanistan and pakistan, its neighborhood with the main center of opium planting in the world, its location in the main path of trafficking narcotic substances, the ethnic integrity of baluchs in three countries which are iran, afghanistan, and baluchistan which have spread interactions, its poverty and economic deprivation compared with other regions of the country, its tribal format, natural difficulties and the activity of terrorist ideological groups. 2. theoretical framework the residents of various geographical regions are influenced by various geographical scales (local, national, regional, global, and geographical) due to the development of technologies, media, the increasing of people’s knowledge and access to the required infrastructures. these mutual influences between regions and people have challenged the ability of governments to manage the national and land integrity of the country. so, political geography tried to explain the mentioned impacts on national and land integrity under the framework of regionalism. undoubtedly, the emergence of regionalism is rooted in the areas which have been influenced by local-global geographical scales. therefore, analysis of regionalism phenomenon requires finding out the consequences of geographical scales on the development of regionalism phenomenon. 3. methodology this research is typically an applied one and its methodology is descriptive and analytic. the researcher tried to find out and explain the impact of geographical scales on the formation of regionalism phenomenon in south east of iran and tried to present a true and ideal analysis of regionalism phenomenon in this area through gathering and studying data in the library, internet data bases, and through conducting interviews. 4. findings and discussion the results of the research showed that regionalism formation in baluchistan is affected by various geographical scales which have played a role in the formation of this phenomenon in this region. so, the following reasons have caused religious regionalism formation in this part of the country in different scales: ideological and financial supports of neighboring countries through media tools, some restrictions on full political and social participation, inefficiency of distribution system, contradiction of regional identity interests, the distance, and religion heterogeneity. keyword: geographical scale, region, regionalism, iran, baluchistan