Opportunities and Challenges of Iranian Cultural Diplomacy in Syria, Focusing on Active Cultural trends

In recent years, where Syria is one of the most important countries targeted by Iran's foreign policy, the importance of cultural diplomacy has become increasingly apparent. The present study emphasizes the need to recognize the active cultural trends in Syria as an influential factor in the cultural changes and developments of the target community, thus providing a close examination of the challenges and opportunities of diplomacy through the relative recognition gained from the culture of the Syrian society. The country has a cultural background. The main question that this research seeks to answer is: What are the opportunities and challenges of cultural diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran with emphasis on active cultural trends in the country? The research method is qualitative. The data collected through interviews with the experts, specialists and activists in this field were analyzed by thematic analysis in three stages of descriptive, interpretive and integration coding. From 293 primary themes, 30 organizing themes and finally 6 universal themes were extracted. The overarching themes are: the cultural activity of Syrian currents, the active cultural trends in Syria, cultural approaches, the IRI's political needs in the Syrian cultural sphere, the IRI's political challenges in the Syrian cultural sphere, the cultural status of Syrian society. Finally, after categorizing the different challenges and opportunities of Iranian cultural diplomacy in Syria as regards the cultural flows of the country, a communication model is provided for each of them that determines how cultural planning is to have an effective cultural diplomacy.