نشریه مطالعات روابط فرهنگی بین المللی
پیاپی 7 (تابستان 1397)

Today, the field of international relations is strongly influenced by cultural factors and identity. Therefore, at the present time, governments have adopted a new approach to achieve their political, social and economic goals by using cultural tools in their relations with other governments. The presence of the Islamic Republic of Iran as an active country in the international stage has provided a platform for the its activities in the various fields more than before. Thus, recognition of the causes and factors of success and failure in this field is one of the issues to be addressed. So that, the Islamic Republic of Iran with its dynamic presence in the international stage, continuously and consistently achieves its goals and interests. Iran has a high potential for cultural diplomacy, and since this country has a good situation in terms of having hard power, it is necessary to add to its soft power and strive to achieve a desirable position in this field. This paper seeks to introduce a meaningful and accurate conception of cultural diplomacy with descriptive and analytical research methods. Also this research aims to address the following question:What is the role of cultural diplomacy in developing international relations, especially Iran's relations with the Western countries? The hypothesis of this paper shows that the cultural discourses of Iran with the West have a significant difference to compare with the other countries and by employing the cultural diplomacy, this difference could be minimized.

Today, in the international arena, all countries are trying to engage in comprehensive development oriented mutual dialogue with a principle called maintaining national interests, and have concluded that making use of cultural instruments is the best and most efficient way of optimal implementation of foreign policy and gaining national interest. With the advent of new political-security and geopolitical developments, the political stance of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the EU has changed. The EU that encompasses some powerful and influential countries, is considered to be one of the powerful economic blocs in the international system. Given the US sanctions against our country, the formulation and implementation of efficient cultural diplomacy is an issue that can provide a better opportunity for more serious engagement with the EU, leading to tension reduction and peace and security return. Cultural diplomacy can be said to be an efficient and flexible instrument in foreign policy to improve the level of government relations and to increase understanding among nations and to create international peace and stability. It also provides the appropriate grounds for mutual understanding of human societies through the expansion of cultural-artistic exchanges, development of academic- educational collaborations and interaction between elites and communities, language teaching and the removal of existing language barriers. This study is a library research and has a descriptive-analytic method. It seems that if the foreign policy of a country could promote its desirable values ​​in the international system by making use of attractive culture for nations, it would create behavioral patterns and political commitments without compulsion at the major level in its favor.

In the era of globalization, what has always been important is؛ fear of dissolving local cultures and disappearing in a general culture, or facing with various cultural subgroups, and more creating concepts of otherness and resistance and trying to survive local and vernacular identity. In order to compression of time and space in the era of globalization, there are always questions like this: does globalization leads to cultural homogenization, cultural polarization, or cultural hybridization? Today, culture plays different roles such one of the majors platforms of globalization and modern values and an important field of competition for vernacular, religious and ethnic identities. However in the developing countries, particularly in Islamic countries where traditional values and very different concepts of identity and society are dominant, their reactions to globalization are very intense and appear through indices such as sacrifice, resistance and identity crisis. This paper reviews the impact of globalization on international cultural relations of Iran and argues the positive and negative aspects. Furthermore, in order to three elements as cultural diplomacy, media development, and integrated approach to common identifier factors, the researcher concluded an appropriate combination of global and local features with an emphasis on an efficient cultural diplomacy that could reveal cultural interrelationships and has the ability to negotiate differences in cultural relations.

The issues of "Islamophobia" and "Iranophobia" contain extensive discussions that have been addressed a wider discourse in the recent years, due to the various research and theories. According to the different debates, a diverse collection of intellectual controversies and theories are concerning with in Islamophobia and Iranophobia. Despite these efforts, the indeterminate and vague nature of this phenomenon causes the ambiguity of these two themes that includes a wide range of different modernism, postmodernism, radicalism and violent discourses in the West. In addition to the necessity of the comprehension of Islamophobia and Iranophobia, there is a need to argue and present strategies to deal with them. Thus, the main focus of this paper lies on how to manage and deal with the Islamophobia and Iranophobia policies in the West and find solutions to reduce the negative impacts on the identity of Muslims.

Due to the various factors and components, countries choose different foreign policies. In addition to tangible factors that influence on foreign policy and consequently, foreign relations of the countries, intangible and cultural factors play an effective role in directing the foreign policies of the countries, particularly Iran. In this regard, the study of cultural factors and fields of Iran and the survey of their impacts on foreign relations of the different governments with Iran, represents an important role in further understanding of the foreign policy of the country. This paper seeks to answer to address the following question: What is the role of cultural factors in foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in opposition with Western Powers? The research seeks to explore the following hypothesis: the foreign policy of Iran in the field of cultural diplomacy as a common topic and specifically in Nuclear negotiations of the country with the West, has influenced by cultural factors. These cultural factors have influenced the foreign policy of the country in opposite of the Western powers as an independent variable. The research will attempt to examine the intangible factors and their impacts on the foreign policy of Iran with the Western powers by using constructivism strategy and descriptive analytical method.

In this paper, cultural diplomacy has evaluated as a series of efforts in order to understand, inform, engage and impact on the people of the other nations that ensures preservation and promotion of national interests by using cultural means  as efficient and flexible elements in the foreign policy. These cultural means provide opportunities to promote the international relations between the governments followed by increased understanding between nations and establishment of international peace and stability by denying necessarily power-oriented procedures in solving international challenges and disputes and establishing international security. Following explanation of the nature of cultural diplomacy, nature and means of French cultural diplomacy has specifically reviewed, a country with Western civilization, and its values and norms were examined as a its cultural diplomacy background. Values and norms include cultural elements and means such as international position of French language, advanced and long-record universities, a strong relation with the governments that had been previously the colonies of France, rich, old and at the same time modern and famous museums such as the Louvre Museum with 35,000 valuable artworks that includes art and architecture, and record of democracy and liberalism of cultural diplomacy of France that plays a key role in determining behaviors, decisions and policies of French government. The main aim of this research is to examine the details of cultural diplomacy as axis of general policies that authorizes the governments to communicate with foreign nations and affect public thoughts, by emphasizing the French cultural diplomacy and its cultural means.