Iranian culture and civilization and globalization; opportunities and challenges

Globalization is a process in which different technical, political, cultural and economic parts of different nations changed to be transnational with the development of connections through which national governments increasingly linked to each other. This dependence and connections cause problems for national sovereignty and national government. This concept didn't have scientific validity until the early 1980's, but since then its application has been global. Globalization creates many opportunities and challenges, and Iran due to its geographical and historical features which put it in the cultural crossroad of the world, has had wide connection with different nations. This is mainly influenced by the strategic location of Iran that western countries were always trying to exploit it to achieve their own goals and interests. These connections in recent century, especially in the late Qajar were taken a new form of colonization and it continued with many ups and downs during the Pahlavi regime. With the Islamic revolution, the connection of Iran with the world was taken a new form, which sometimes has been influenced by the revolutionary atmosphere and specific circumstances. With the ending of the imposed war, there were more opportunities for Iran to increase its connection with the world. This process has had different aspects of cultural, political, economic and etc., among them cultural aspect has been the most important. Because of its long history of civilization and culture, Iran has a huge potential to influence the global trends. Cultural aspects of Iranian civilization, has always had a significant manifestations in the world which indicates the Iranian high cultural capacity to retain itself and even influence on other cultures. The problem now seems to be considered by cultural authorities, is the offering of national culture symbols in a way, understandable and appealing to today's generation and avoidance of any dogmatism and intolerance in cultural affairs. This paper describes the cultural views about globalization and investigates the position of Iranian culture and its role in the process of globalization and also, challenges and opportunities facing it. Some guidelines and recommendations for dealing with the challenges and using the opportunities are presented.