Damages and Obstacles to the Participation of Cultural Diplomacy in Iran; A Qualitative Research

With regard to the statements of Imam Khomeini and the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, as well as the superior documents of the Islamic Republic of Iran, it can be concluded that as the Iranian people have played a pivotal role in various areas of this revolution, they must also play a key role in the international arena. According to the research, the "participation of cultural diplomacy" should be occurred. The current situation shows that this important issue has not been realized, as it should be. The purpose of this research was to identify the damages and obstacles to the realization of the participation of cultural diplomacy. For this purpose, the participant and non-participant observation method, semi-structured interviews, and documents were used to collect data. In addition, the thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data of the research. The results indicate that cultural diplomacy in the Islamic Republic of Iran has not yet reached the participation level and several damages and obstacles have prevented it from being realized. These damages and obstacles can be considered in three general categories including "by official custodians", "by popular actors", and "by external factors", each containing a set of micro damages and obstacles.