نشریه مطالعات روابط فرهنگی بین المللی
پیاپی 5 (بهار 1396)

The growth of extremism in the world and at the same time the intensification of hegemonic violence in international system on pretexts of fighting terrorism, are among the important developments in international arena during the recent decades. Understanding the identity and the behavior of the extremist Salafi ideology in the world of Islam is certainly associated with understanding international developments. Therefore, it seems that systematic study in international relations arena, based on a dynamic interaction between structure and agent, had and will have a high power of clarification of the simultaneous developments in “international system” and “extremist-Salafi Islam”. On this basis, the main question of this paper is: How have the international system and Salafi extremism influenced each other ever since the post-Cold War? Regarding the theoretical framework of constructionism, we will try to find an appropriate response to this question through studying the process of intersubjective understanding of the extremist Salafi groups and placing emphasis on the constructivist nature of structure-agent relations. It seems that the two components have not only reciprocal theoretical and practical effects on each other, but also the reciprocal consolidation of international structure and Salafi extremism can be taken as the most outstanding feature of international dynamism during the recent decades.

 The modern communication tools develop constantly, thus accelerate globalization and cohesion of time and place. This has, in turn, both created opportunities and imposed threats for human life in all individual and social levels. One such threat is the intensification of identity crisis concurrent with the expansion of the communication tools. This has given chance to the religious fundamentalist groups to use modern communication tools to recruit sympathizers and to give a definition of resistance identity against the global identity. Daesh is one of these extremist groups that is still wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria. It has managed to make big achievements in recruitments and in realization of its goals. The researchers in this paper have hypothesized that globalization and its consequences had direct impact on the growth of religious extremism and fundamentalism such as Daesh Takfiri group. Thus they pose the question of “What is the relationship between globalization and the joining of individuals to the religious fundamentalist groups, Daesh in particular?” In response to this question, this paper’s hypothesis suggests that: identities, ideological briefing, boundaries, values, places as well as sustainable and traditional time in globalization process have been affected by challenges and collapse, therefore, Takfiri groups like Daesh have tried to recruit from among societies with identity crisis and have managed to turn their sympathizers into active agents through their special way of identity formation and ideological briefing, the components of which will be covered in this paper. This has been achieved through modern communication tools.

Despite its ancient history, extremism is today on top of the modern-day developments across the globe that has threatened human communities seriously during the recent years. This paper intends to make an in-depth study into the nature of extremism. The findings of the paper show that extremism is a multidimensional phenomenon with intertwined elements and components. Identity rejection, Takfirism, immigration formalities, right-wing politics, populism, separatism, and secession are important components that unanimously constitute the cycle of extremism. Although some elements of this cycle maintain a longer history, they have been reproduced during the recent years and all of them have been simultaneously intensified.  This paper studies the relationship among these elements with a descriptive-analytical method.

Globalization has affected various social, political and cultural aspects. In this context, culture is one of the topics and aspects that have been very influential in the recent Evolution in globalization. The purpose of this study is to consider the Islamic Republic of Iran's view of global culture with a constructive approach. After World War II, and attention to new issues in the field of international politics, such as culture, liberal values have ultimately made the most influential type of culture on the structure and institutions. Meanwhile, in Iran, with the advent of the Shiite-based revolution, a new culture has been formed in its structure. Now, despite the cultural globalization and the Islamic identity of Iran after the revolution, what kind of insight is Iran to culture in world politics? The research hypothesis according to our main question is that, with regard to constructivist theory, Iran, with the backing of the Islamic Revolution and by incorporating Islamic elements into its culture, has always resisted the global culture and, in addition, claims a new pattern The name of political Islam in world politics. Therefore, in this research, we first consider the analytical components of the constructivist approach and then look at the place of culture in world politics and, finally, we will examine Iran's position in global culture and its reactions.

The complicated and multilayer role of language in cultural relations and interactions in the international level is something clear today. Colonialism and the global arrogance has exploited this important role within the past centuries, so that linguistic and cultural colonization constitutes a major segment of the history of colonialism in the past and present. This is while Islam is a linguistic religion whose civilization is likewise based on language and culture. The language of Quran is not the mother tongue of any tribe; rather, it is the most perfect and comprehensive language through which the Almighty God addresses people. It is based on human nature. It is a language far beyond the boundaries of race and ethnicity, politics and nationality, and even beyond the geographical and historical boundaries. It is more the basis for and essence of knowledge and insight, intellect and culture than translation of a legal collection, fiction, and Sharia law for the religiously recommended and religiously prohibited issues. Given its diversified and chiefly undiscovered capacities, the language of Quran can be used as a source of intellectual communications as well as cultural and scientific pattern for the Islamic Republic of Iran for promotion of higher humane ends in global level.  This paper clarifies parts of the roles and capacities of this language while maintaining that the translations of the Holy Quran have all been unable to reflect and represent those roles.

The formation of new types or the revival of the former types of extremism within the Islamic community has been one of the most important factors in subsiding the awakening movements in the world of Islam. The history of Islam has experienced these patterns in intervals, which have acted like an “antidote” depending upon certain time and place conditions. The new uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) – that began during the closing days of 2011 and under “Islamic Awakening”, helped the extremist Salafi ideology reproduce itself into neo-Salafi extremism. The expanded activity of the new ideology had an outstanding impact on the world of Islam both theoretically and practically. The consequences of the new form of extremism were chiefly realized in creating new and serious cleavages among the Islamic nations, expansion of the Islamophobia in massive scale, and in marginalization of the main issues in the world of Islam. Applying an analytical and descriptive method, this paper reviews various aspects of neo-Salafi extremism and the consequences of the expansion of this extremist approach on the world of Islam, and proposes some ways for countering this type of extremism.

Science is a global phenomenon which is not confined to geopolitical boundaries. Science acquisition primarily requires motivation, great interest and diligence. Scientists are global citizens. The ability of the scientific societies to go beyond the demarcated boundaries of nations and geography is known to all. The future world empire will be created by those who plan to control science. As an advanced form of knowledge, science has officially recognized the privileges of soft power in the emerging knowledge-based world economy. Applying the capacity of scientific diplomacy in realization of foreign policy objectives is among the acceptable assumptions in this approach. The main question before this paper to respond, is this: Are there certain models in connection with scientific diplomacy? The results, attained through comparative study of scientific diplomacy in regional and transregional countries, suggest that all countries possess a concentrated model of scientific diplomacy, although it is of a concentrated partnership model (role of non-governmental organizations) in the United States. These models vary in terms of objectives. In American model, science and technology are used to boost US power in international arena, while Turkish model pursues science acquisition. In European Union model, science is at the service of EU soft power, and in Indian model science and politics serve each other. In all these models, the states have primarily embarked on inking cooperation agreements. In the next stage, the scientific advisor undertakes the role of making the agreement operational through formation of joint committees. Membership in international scientific bodies is another measure by the states to that end. This paper intends to study various models of scientific diplomacy in regional and transregional powers through a comparative method of research.

This article seeks to identify and introduce the ways of EU's cultural policy. EU member states regarding the growing importance of public opinion and soft power in one hand and dwindling the importance of hard power legitimacy in other hand in 21 century, try to reach the legitimacy of persuasion and justification by using cultural diplomacy in foreign policy. EU through investments in soft power has been able to globalize its norms and values, minimize costs in achieving foreign policy goals and to provide internal integration. This article, with this main question that, what is effect of cultural diplomacy on the EU integration policy, Seek to prove that cultural diplomacy not only strengthening EU integration policy, also promoting its soft power and globalizing EU norms and values.

Any relations among humans will lead to intercultural relations in practice. Today, the media is burdened with an important portion of such relations. The relationship between “Iranian world” and “Arab world” is no exception to this. The essence of this relationship and its chief elements are culture and civilization coming from shared life or interaction among various tribes and nations and from the transference of its cultural components. In the course of history, the Iranian and Arab worlds have maintained coexistence either by choice or by force so that they have a major share in laying the foundation of a joint civilization. The most outstanding example of intercultural confrontation between the Iranians and Arabs dates back to the building of a bright Islamic civilization known as the Islamic Renaissance. “Islam” was the architecture and promoter of relations and communications between the Iranian and Arab worlds. This interaction, however, is facing some challenges today. These challenges have not been created overnight. To overcome these challenges, one must review and analyze their root causes. This paper has focused on media capacities and roles in minimizing the intercultural tensions coming from deconstructive representations while reviewing the historical cultural commonalities between the Iranian and Arab worlds. The main instrument for studying these variables is the so-called peace journalism that is a media for boosting mutual agreement, concord, and mutual understanding between the two cultures. However, we will first show that analyzing the structures of conflict and violence is the prerequisite for paying attention to peace.
We will also show in this paper that how intercultural, scientific and academic relations can directly and indirectly work along with the media to pave the ground for concordant intercultural relations. Cooperation among the university students majoring in cultural relations and studies in the cultural arena of the Iranian and Arab worlds can pave the ground for holding training courses and specialized workshops on peace journalism.

During the recent years, the world of Islam – in comparison with other political and cultural arenas in the world - is suffering from violence, conflicts and wars so that there is no promising prospect for integration and Islamic unity. This paper intends in its ultimate end to review and analyze the most important challenges before integration in the world of Islam and propose solutions for overcoming those challenges. In this paper, we will show that the role of cultural and religious issues is fundamental in the relationships between the Islamic nations. Therefore, it is our hypothesis that these factors are influential in the lack of integration in the world of Islam. The principal question of this paper, then, is this: “What cultural-religious challenges is the world of Islam facing with in the contemporary age?” The hypothesis presented as a quick response argues that the “the weakness in rationality and moderation as well as problems associated with identity crisis coming from the developments in modern communication tools are among the most outstanding cultural-religious challenges in the world of Islam during the current period.” The findings of this paper, developed based on the theory of integration and through an analytical-interpretive method, suggest that applying a superficial attitude toward the Holy Quran and the Islamic traditions, enacting rules and laws outside the fabric of rationality and moderation, as well as promotion of ignorance on one hand, and on the other hand, the globalization of culture, that have simultaneously created extremist and non-religious identities in the Islamic communities, are among the most pressing cultural challenges in the world of Islam at the current age.