Iran's Foreign Policy in the Corona Age: From Health Diplomacy to Media Diplomacy

The outbreak of the coronavirus in the world marked a new age in the foreign policy of states and highlighted the importance of "media diplomacy" and "health diplomacy. The main questions of the present study are: "What were the characteristics of Iranian media diplomacy during the epidemic of coronavirus and how did media diplomacy help health diplomacy? The main hypothesis of the research deals with both positive and negative aspects of Iranian media diplomacy and considers it as the context for health diplomacy. We used Itan Gilboa's theory of media diplomacy to explain this relationship. The research findings that are based on descriptive-analytical method show that from the negative aspect, Iran has used media tactics such as highlighting, positive imaging and demonization and on the positive dimension, it has used two tactics:1- emphasizing on international solidarity and 2- emphasizing Détente. Helping Iranian citizens in other countries, facilitating access to medical equipment, trying to lift sanctions, strengthening cooperation with the World Health Organization and paving the way for scientific cooperation with other countries in the field of corona vaccine production are the most important measures of the Iranian in health diplomacy.