Smart power strategies of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Syrian crisis

Smart power is a purposeful and intelligent combination of hard (coercion and coercion) and soft (persuasion and attraction) power, the use of which leads to improving the capabilities of a country in foreign policy and obtaining national interests with less cost and time. This problem has caused governments to try to use the combination of their soft and hard resources in different ways according to different conditions. Taking into account the surrounding developments of Iran in West Asia and the connection of Iran's national interests with these developments, the question arises as to how the Islamic Republic of Iran has used intelligent power in realizing its goals and interests. The findings of this research, which were collected in a descriptive-explanatory method, show that it can be said that Iran was not passive to the developments in the surrounding environment in West Asia, including in Syria, but in line with the realization of its goals in order to gain influence and deal with the increasing threats of power. Houshmand (soft power and hard power) has been used so that in the hard dimension of Iran's jihadist presence in Syria, the military presence to maintain the balance of power and strengthen the security of Syria, the presence of resistance forces in Syria, and in the soft dimension, emphasizing the democratic procedure to solve the crisis, opposition to separatism. Syria has been attracting the support of other countries to Syria.