Futures Studies of Convergence of Islamic Countries by Scenario Planning Method

The Islamic world is a vast geographical area that includes Southwest Asia, Central Asia, North Africa and parts of South and Southeast Asia. Most of the residents of this vast geographical area are followers of Islam and are distinguished from other regions of the world based on the Quranic doctrine of "One Ummah" or "Islamic Ummah". The Islamic world, which had experienced great and brilliant power and civilization in the first centuries of Islam in the form of a unified Islamic state in a converging and complementary way; In recent centuries, it suffered from colonialism, weakness, passivity, dependence, fragmentation, and division, and with the currents of nationalism and ethnocentrism in the form of the nationstate system, it was completely disintegrated and suffered politicalspatial divergence and rupture. In recent decades, some thinkers, reformers and political activists of the Islamic world have thought about the convergence and unity of Islamic countries based on the theory of a single nation. The main issue of the research is what are the alternative futures and different scenarios for the cooperation and convergence of Islamic countries? The answer to this problem has been done in the framework of future studies and with the method of exploratory scenario development and the use of aggregation of elite opinions. The results of the research show that four scenarios can be presented for Islamic countries, which is the scenario of complete convergence and the formation of a unified Islamic state as a desirable future, the scenario of convergence of Islamic countries in the form of an Islamic confederation as the preferred future, the scenario of convergence and the formation of a union of Islamic countries as a possible future, and the continuation scenario. The current situation and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will be possible in the future.