نشریه مطالعات روابط فرهنگی بین المللی
پیاپی 11 (تابستان 1398)

Iran is a powerful actor in the West Asian region, which owing to its important geo-political positions, the influence of its soft power and its ability in having an impact on the countries of the region has always been subjected to threats and/or enticement by various political actors. One of the fundamental challenges faced in the age of globalization and the transition period is the phenomenon of Iranophobia - Islamophobia. According to the authors, new forms of threats call for the implementation of new forms of strengthening defense methodologies.In this research work the authors have endeavored to provide an answer to the question that ‘how would the Islamic Republic of Iran be able to confront the soft threat of the enemy posed in the form of Islamophobia and Iranophobia’? For this purpose and based on a descriptive - analytical methodology efforts have been made in this paper to examine the assumption that by relying on the global and true values of the Iranian - Islamic culture focused on such elements as “increasing power”, “creation of a proper and optimal image” and “resolving the security and non-security challenges through cognitive alterations and maturity of negotiation” in confronting the above-mentioned challenge. In other words, cultural diplomacy, which plays a significant role in interaction between minds in various societies can pave the path for the elevation of soft power, formation of a positive and interactive image of Iran in the world as well as resolving the cognitive and identity challenges faced by this country.

Resistance economy has been put forward as an idea by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, who plays a vital role in formulating the economic model of the Islamic system under various conditions, including the sanctions. From this point of view, attention to the main elements of the resistance economy is considered to be a practical solution for the elimination of internal problems, and furthermore, pave the way for making the Islamic Republic of Iran an ideal role model for the political systems of the region and the Muslims of the world. Keeping the above in view, the main concern of the present study is to come up with an answer to the following question that: in what way can the resistance economy, as an economic model proposed by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, be applied as the cultural diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran? The most important findings of the present study are that Islamic economy can be considered a part of the cultural diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran by taking into account the Islamic-Iranian lifestyle, attention to the internal power of nations against sanctions, the negation of dependency, as well as a justice-oriented economy. In this way, should the characteristics of the resistance economy be fulfilled, it can introduce the Islamic Republic of Iran as a role model, and add to the international and regional influence and credibility of the Islamic Republic of Iran as an independent political system; even under the sanction conditions. As per the approach adopted for this paper, the descriptive-analytical method was selected as the research methodology by relying on information derived from available documents, books, articles and papers as well the speeches of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

Russia’s foreign policy towards the African Continent shows that Moscow is seriously working on expanding its relations with the African countries and exerting more influence on this continent. Vladimir Putin, in particular, is trying to make sure that Russia does not lag behind the existing widespread competition between major powers such as the United States of America, China, the European Union and even India with regards to being present in the African Continent, to reintroduce Russia as a superpower with an effective trans-regional and international performance and to rebuild ties with the continent. The first Russia-Africa Summit took place in the city of Sochi, Russia, on 23 and 24, October 2019, which was attended by heads of states from all over Africa as well as the leaders of key regional associations and organizations of a number of African countries and served as an opportunity for consolidating Russia’s footsteps in this continent. A number of deals to the tune of more than $ 12.5 billion were struck on the sidelines of the summit.
In the opinion of the Russian president, the African Continent has vast reserves of natural resources and manpower and is uniquely attractive, and Russia, with a long history of relationship with African countries, is considering the expansion of comprehensive political, economic and cultural relations with this continent. In this paper, efforts have been made to analyze, in a descriptive way, the Russian foreign policy and its new approach towards the African countries and their existing capacities and to examine the effects of this new approach on the expansion of cultural relations between the two sides.

With the new developments in international political interactions and the rise in the number of non-governmental actors in the political, economic, and cultural scenes of the world, countries can no more ignore the role of non-governmental organizations in the area of foreign affairs. Friendship associations have proved to be such organizations that have come to play a significant role in the area of cultural diplomacy and cultural relations. To this end, in the present paper attempts have been made to provide an answer to the question that: what role do the friendship societies play in the cultural diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran? The hypothesis of the paper is that friendship societies are one of the executive arms of modern public diplomacy in the present day, whose planned actions can serve and ensure the national interests of the nations at a lower cost. In order to support this hypothesis, resort has been made to the conceptual framework of cultural diplomacy, and the findings show that Iranian friendship associations can enhance the cultural power of the Islamic Republic of Iran and promote the benefit of the Iranian society by adhering to some of the requirements involved in international politics. Some of the functions of the Iranian friendship societies that are aimed at the expansion of cultural diplomacy and gaining a favorable political and cultural status for Iran’s foreign policy apparatus include: portraying a positive image of Iran, expanding friendly relations with other nations, contributing to the achievement of Iran’s international political goals, highlighting the Iranian cultural heritage, aligning the target communities with Iranian cultural ideas, conveying political and cultural messages of Iran, contributing to increased regional and global peace, building mutual trust, promoting political and cultural convergence in the Muslim world, managing public opinion, and etc.

The main objective of the present study is to analyze the performance of both economic diplomacy and cultural diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Middle East under the existing conditions of economic sanctions. Under contemporary international relations, cultural diplomacy is one of the effective instruments that can ensure the attainment of national goals and the foreign policy of countries, their impact on the public opinion and building effective relations with the governments of other countries. Adoption of cultural diplomacy by Iran and the Middle East countries and engagement in cultural activities with the aim of maintaining and enhancing bilateral and multilateral relations, particularly under the existing condition of the nuclear sanction imposed on Iran, reflects upon the importance of cultural relations at a time when political and economic relations are on the decline. In order to achieve its economic development goals, the Islamic Republic of Iran also needs to take advantage of its cultural capacities with regards to its interaction with the countries of the region. Therefore, in pursuit of the fulfillment of their national progress and interests as well as regional security, Iran and the friendly nations of the region seek to stamp out the existing negative atmosphere by resorting to cultural diplomacy - during the time of imposed sanctions - and through constructive interaction and economic convergence in the region and target markets. Moreover, the adoption of such principles oriented towards continued détente or de-escalation of tension in the foreign policy, formation of a central headquarters with the aim of promoting economic diplomacy, determining the precise responsibilities of the institutions involved and eliminating overlapping and inefficient bodies, strengthening the production industries, encouraging a non-oil-based economy and their extension to regional sectors can prove to be useful in building cultural relationships and removing the challenges facing the economic diplomacy.

The great advances in information and telecommunication technology and their effects on political, economic, social, cultural and other fields, is the basic reason that nowadays the main issue in public diplomacy would be the study of the effects of these effective advances in public diplomacy. Considering that the public diplomacy is one of the most important approaches to have and increase the soft power of countries this question arises that, what is the role of the modern components of the modern public diplomacy in enhancing and improving the soft power of the Islamic Republic of Iran? In the hypothesis has mentioned that, according to new general diplomacy indicators such as branding, the network model of two-way symmetric communication based on the dialogue-based model and mutual understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite taking some positive actions in recent years, has not yet been able to use this potentiality in the best way to increase its soft power. The research method of this enquiry is a descriptive analytical process that deals with data processing in a documentary manner.