Silk Road and Cultural Iran; Concepts for Regional Integration in West Asia

Ancient Silk Road had been a linkage point for great empires and in spite of being formed on economic basis, transformed to a route for cultural and civilizational interactions. As a result, countries of West Asia and Central Asia (as a sub-region) became the heirs of a great and viable culture. In this paper historical background of Silk Road and its economic and cultural implications will be discussed and then we try to show that by revival of Silk Road, integration in West Asia would become a serious possibility, depriving extremists from a positive context for recruiting and growth and strengthening bases for the growth of Cultural Iran and the tolerant nature inherent in it. Therefore a number of important theories in the study of regionalism is discussed and used as the theoretical foundation.