The Relation Between Culture And Hegemony In Global Arena: A Gramscian perspective

Culture is a key variable in understanding of global politics and international relations’ arena, which is usually ignored by realism as dominant approach. But Gramscianist thinkers have prepared a broad field to encompass culture in global politics and international relations by theorizing the concept of “Hegemony”. This article brings up this main question that what is the relationship between culture and hegemony? And through studying the ideas of Gramsci and his followers, offers this hypothesis that there is a direct relation between Culture and Hegemony and in opposite of common perception that wrongly assume Hegemony as a coercive dominance, hegemony is a kind of dominance based on satisfaction and the ability of cultural and ideological leading of societies. So, legitimacy and cultural acceptability of superpowers have got more importance rather than military and economic power to guarantee their global superiority. In consequence, culture can implement hegemony and is a necessary factor for an actor to play a hegemonic role in global stage. Finally, this article offers some guidelines for policy making in Islamic Republic of Iran according to Gramscian teachings.