مهدی شریعتی فیض آبادی

The hosting of Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the announcement of Saudi Arabia's preparation for the 2034 made the world wondered for the new Middle East in the coming years. On the one hand, political experiences such as war and extremism groups, and on the other hand, the main source of oil and gas supply in the Middle East is a proof of the need for countries in the region to use football as a lever in changing the international image. The purpose of the current research is to investigate the position of football and the development process of football in the Middle East region, focusing on the three countries of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE, and finally, the reason for Iran's conflicts with some of these countries in region. While the sport has a critical role on empowering the international prestige of Gulf states, football is the critical part to fill the power vacuum in region. Football has two minor (media, airlines and tourism) and micro (Geopolitics, geo economy, competition and political economy) impression on region.

In the contemporary global landscape, nations strive to portray themselves as modern and open societies, employing various tools, such as art diplomacy, scientific diplomacy, and sports diplomacy, as a compelling facet of public engagement, especially over the past two decades. This study aims to scrutinize the role of sports in interactions of Iran and Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The research was descriptive based on qualitative technic that was done by two round Delphi interviews. The participants consisted of 14 experts of sport policy and international relations and the data collection involved an examination of diverse sources, including articles, books, and websites of Google Scholar, Taylor Francis, and Sciences Direct. The qualitative section indicated three concepts of sport diplomatic interactions of Iran and SCO countries included: Economic, Political and Cultural factors. The findings also highlight Russia and China as promising prospects for fostering sports diplomatic interactions with Iran. Sports events that secure medals, notably gymnastics and swimming, benefit significantly from enhanced bilateral and multilateral exchanges within the sports competitions framework among Shanghai Cooperation Agreement nations.

The outbreak of war in Ukraine at the same time as the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics once again called the world sports to engage in international military warfare. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of sports deterrent in the prevention of international military wars. The present study was a qualitative-netnogeraphy method, which was conducted by studying various websites and social networks such as Instagram and official websites of BBC sport, CNN sport, ABC sport, Varzesh TV, Olympics and FIFA World Cup pages. The results indicated that sport sanctions of Russia categorized to personal (8) and organizational (21) concepts. Although Sports is a non-political phenomenon, it can play as a peace-making factor to decrease the political and military pressure on nations. Today, athletes, because of their billion audience on social media and messengers, have an irreplaceable impact on the public, including efforts to curb violence, aggression and incitement to war, including effective sports in promoting international peace.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of organizational justice on the relationship between organizational policy and organizational citizenship behavior of sports experts in Tehran Municipality. The statistical population of the present study was all the experts of 22 districts of Tehran Municipality (N= 1800) and the statistical sample according to Cochran's formula was equal to 317 people. Finally, out of 350 distributed questionnaires, 323 questionnaires were found to be valid. A four-part questionnaire was used to collect the research data. The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by 5 experts and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used in the pilot study for assessing the reliability of the research tool. Conducting Pearson correlation test as well as structural equation modeling through SPSS and LISREL software were used to examine the research hypotheses. The results of Pearson test showed a negative and significant relationship between organizational policy and organizational citizenship behavior (-0.51) and regression analysis of the study showed that 32% of changes in citizenship behavior could be predicted by organizational justice and organizational policy variables (32/32). Testing the research model revealed the indirect effect (mediated by perceived organizational justice) and direct effect of perceived organizational policy on organizational citizenship behavior. Moreover, the coefficient of direct impact (-0.183) of perceived policy on organizational citizenship behavior was found to be more than its indirect effect (-0.705).

Background: China is the undisputed power of sports in the world today and due to the close relations of China and Iran in many different aspects, the bilateral scientific works can be considered as well. Aim : The purpose of this study was to analyze the opportunities for the development of championship sports with a look at the cooperation document between Iran and China. Materials and Methods: The present study was a qualitative (descriptive-analytical) type of library studies in terms of applied purpose and in terms of data collection, which examined scientific works including books, articles, and notes during 2010-2021 about Iranian sports and China took place. Results: The research findings showed that the Islamic Republic of Iran and China, as two superpowers of West and East Asia, can have different sports interactions with each other in team and individual disciplines, respectively. In addition, the Iranians can use sport as a starting point and a tool to facilitate and accelerate their political-trade relations by winning 76 and the Chinese by winning 696 medals in the Summer and Winter Olympics; For example, the Chinese in the fields of swimming and diving, gymnastics, table tennis and recently weightlifting have emerged as the undisputed power of the world, while Iran can also compete in team sports such as football, volleyball and even Basketball to share its experiences in human resource development as the most important precondition for national excellence with this country. Conclusion: All in all, sport as a facilitator between Iran and China can develop the future political communications. China is the pioneer of Olympic Games and 25 years agreement can lead to brilliant future for Iranians.

The purpose of this study is to identify the role of sport as a soft power for Iran to facilitate its diplomatic relations after the nuclear deal. The research method used in this study is mixed (qualitative and quantitative): in the qualitative part of the analysis, the study sample was selected via Snowball sampling based on partricipants’ expertise in the sport diplomacy of Iran after two rounds of Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) exploratory factor analysis. Seven components of political currents, cultural exchange, peacemaking, national unity, economic development, transformation, communication, and religious currents were extracted. After identifying the study’s research variables in a structural-interpretive modeling, the relationship between variables was examined through a structural equation modeling test. The results of the structural equation model indicated that political currents, cultural exchange, transformation and communication had a direct and significant effect on national unity. The relationship between political and peacebuilding was not confirmed, but national unity and excellence in peace diplomacy had a direct and significant impact on the economic development of societies.