Public Diplomacy and Iran's Foreign Policy: Evaluation and Recommendations

Developments in the international arena in recent decades, including the increasing role and power of non-governmental actors, have brought about changes in the functions of diplomacy. Nowadays, states appear to have increasingly shifted to a rather new approach and relied more on the use of public diplomacy in pursuing their foreign policy goals. The present article looks into the growing functions of public diplomacy in general and discusses the case of Iran as a country with considerable soft power and in a position to effectively utilize its potentials in pursuance of its foreign policy objectives. As argued in the article, despite the attempts to this end in the past, a well-defined and coherent plan for public diplomacy has yet to be developed and implemented. This calls for a strategic approach to the matter at hand. The article tries to explore the parameters of such a strategic approach and its imperatives, taking into account, inter alia, the country’s capacity and resources, institutional requirements, and requisite change in discourse and methods of communication with the intended foreign audience. As part of their recommendations, the authors believe that the foreign policy apparatus; that is, the foreign ministry, should be entrusted with the primary responsibility for the formulation and implementation of public diplomacy, with other institutions, both public and private, playing a complementary role.