Role of Sports in Development of International Relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran (1997 - 2013)

In this research, the role of sports in development of international relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been studied from 1997 to 2013. The method applied is “Analytic” and “Descriptive”. The Library references, interview and self-structured questionnaire have been implemented. In questionnaire, “Statistical population” has been included the “National Sports Directors, International Sports Authorities, National Athletes, Champions and international Sports Experts. In Interview, “Statistical population” included Sports Directors and International Sports Authorities. The Sampling which has been applied was “Targeted” and Non-randomly. The Construct and Content Validity have been approved by distinguished university experts; Cronbach's alpha has been applied for investigating the questionnaire reliability. The data gathered via questionnaire is also processed by SPSS software and the result has been applied in order to analyze descriptive and deductive responses. “Two-Sampled T2 Test “has been used. The primary study in current research is based on the field of visionary and theoretical issues in Sports, International Relations and Politics. Then the foreign policy of the country has been studied during these years and as a result the role of sports in international transactions of Iran has been examined in the divided periods of 1997-2005 and 2005-2013.
The findings indicated emphasis and further consideration on the role of sports in expansion of friendly relations and cooperation with other states and international organizations in the first period(1997-2005) because of the considerable role of cultural , soft power and discuss in foreign policy , and also consideration and use of sport as a tool for broadening international prestige of country with earning success in the international sport field and power play in the second period of this research(2005-2013).