Soft power

The medical tourism industry comprises a combination of tourism and medical services and has attracted the attention of most developed and developing countries during the last decades. This industry has capacities which guarantee progress not only in the economic field, but also in the cultural and political spheres; capacities that can deliver great advantages and opportunities in promoting the power of countries. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the elements of medical tourism on the creation of new economic and political opportunities. Consistent with this purpose, the focus of this article was to investigate the reasons for the presence of Azerbaijani medical tourists in Iran and the common interests between the two countries. Following an analysis of prominent articles in this field, several factors such as culture, quality, infrastructure, cost, and destination image were identified and discussed in detail. The identified factors were used as the basis of a questionnaire seeking the views of experts active in the field of medical tourism, and the results evaluated using the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method. The factors driving medical tourism were then classified according to their relative priority. The analysis of the experts’ points of view confirmed Iran's current position and future opportunities in the medical tourism industry.

Simultaneously with the Islamic Revolution victory, the Iranian people, by denying the previous value system, sought the Islamic culture themes as the new social capital of the country and its expansion from personality systems to various structures of society. The richness of this capital will give the community additional soft power that its importance is equal to hard power. The present study aimed to explain social capital and its impact on soft power and evaluate the country's situation during the holy defense to use social capital resources as a powerful defense against enemies. The descriptive method uses a documentary (library) study on the indicators of productive resources and conservation elements and dissemination of social capital. It then collected data and comparative evaluation of these indicators' status in the holy defense. The mechanism of social capital's impact on the soft power amount depends on the resources such as education and science, religion and ideology, civic institutions, and the media. After the Islamic Revolution, the data show their quantitative and qualitative growth to promote soft power during the holy defense. The results indicated that after the Islamic Revolution, despite the significant dependence on software and hardware resources of Western countries, Iranian society, by using the factor of religious ideological’s beliefs to promote its power against foreigners in the holy defense to gain a lot. These beliefs enlightened the people and fought against the corruption of the Pahlavi regime. It used from its progressive basis to respect science and education, religious value resources, and cooperation of the ummah to reform society and spread it, use the best communication methods, and convey meanings to people.

China has become a competitive player in the global higher education landscape with a growing number of Chinese universities being part of the global rankings. With the significant improvement in the quality of some Chinese universities, education as a soft power was deployed by China toward ASEAN countries. This strategy was particularly evident in PRC Ministry of Education’s appeal to Chinese universities to serve the nation’s diplomatic strategies. This paper puts into perspective Sino-ASEAN people-to-people exchange and institutional linkages in the aspect of education. Overall, the article examines the intersections of soft power, geopolitics, and student mobility as situated in the Sino-ASEAN context. Through secondary data analysis, the trend of student mobility from ASEAN countries to China was traced. The results reveal that the ASEAN student outflows to China have been gradually increasing.  By strategically accepting more ASEAN students to Chinese universities, China assists in the development of ASEAN’s human resources and continues to be perceived as a partner in the region’s development.

Soft power is one of the main concepts in international politics. Decision-makers and policymakers in this field seek to be able to achieve their foreign policy goals. Therefore, gaining international prestige and influence in public opinion are among the important and at the same time unspecified goals of countries' diplomacy in the field of international politics. Since the 1950s, the issue of soft power has entered the political literature of Saudi Arabia. This issue, which has long been the focus of Saudi officials, has originated from a variety of sources. An attempt is made, on the one hand, to describe the potential resources that have made it possible for the foreign policy apparatus of this country to be used, and on the other hand, to show the position of soft power in the country's foreign policy in the Middle East and the Islamic world, Also, what effect will this Saudi action have on the foreign policy of the countries in the region, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran. The question is, what are the main sources of Saudi soft power? And what are the consequences for the regional position of the Islamic Republic of Iran? The main sources of Saudi Arabia's soft power production include Cultural, economic, and international resources. In case of successful use of these resources by Saudi Arabia, it will have consequences for Iran such as reducing Iran's influence in the region, promoting anti-Shiism in the region, and weakening Iran's leadership position in the region.

Sports diplomacy is regarded as one of the most important communicative components among nations in their international relations. Regarding the mentioned fact, the main objective of this study was to provide a paradigm of sport diplomacy in the foreign policy of Iran. This is a qualitative study with exploratory nature by applying the Strauss and Corbin grounded theory approach. The data collection tool was semi-structured interviews with 14 elites including sports experts and policymakers. Findings demonstrated 133 initial concepts in open coding, reduced into 27 categories, and categorized into six main themes to support the initial development of the model. The results showed that adopting appropriate strategies like managerial evolution, developing indigenous models, national brand-making through sports, educating and empowering human resources, legal and structural development of sports diplomacy, and cultural changes in Iranian professional sports could bring greater consequences that encourage governing bodies to alter attitudes toward the role of sports diplomacy, and to empowers foreign policy for strengthening mutual relations worldwide.     

The Arbaeen procession has gradually become a cultural and social factor in Iran-Iraq relations. Every year, millions of Iranian people go to Iraq to participate in the Arbaeen procession, showing different kinds of social and cultural interactions with Iraqi people. In addition, this religous practice can have impacts on Iran-Iraq political interaction, which is not properly addressed in the academic research. Based on this assumption, the article probe the effects of Arbaeen march on Iran's soft power in Iraq. The role of practice in foreign policy has been analyzed by some IR scholars like Iver Neumann. However, in recent years, there is a practice turn in international relations theory which emphasizes the importance of practice analysis, complementing discourse analysis. This article investigates the effects of Arbaeen procession on Iran's soft power in Iraq by using the conceptual concept of practice theory. In this article, data have been collected from books, reports and articles regarding this subject. More importantly, first-hand data have been collected and analyzed through interviews with Iranian and Iraqi elites and officials engaged in the Arbaeen procession. The article found that the Arbaeen procession strengthens Iran's soft power in Iraq by creating social ties between two countries and triggers cooperation between Iran and some Iraqi Shiite groups to manage the ceremony.

The 2020 US presidential election was held indirectly through the Electoral College with the rivalry between Trump and Biden from both the Republican and Democratic parties, and as a result, many American crises emerged, indicating a shift in the position of soft power. Soft power means convincing others to achieve the desired result through persuasion, which was invented by Joseph Nye. The soft power of the United States has led to a loss of its international appeal by taking a hard line on soft issues, such as ignoring public diplomacy. The question is, to what extent has the 2020 election affected America's soft power position? The emergence of crises, such as inefficiency in internal management, Trump's rejection of the election results, has led to the decline of America's soft power position in the world. Given this approach to the 2020 elections, this study seeks to examine the challenges posed by many analysts, both in the debate and after the election, through a descriptive-interpretive discourse analysis method. And explain how it has degraded America's soft power position and been able to have a direct impact on its future and global policies, such as the possibility of a power shift paradigm in the international arena. It also suggests that Iran can turn threats into opportunities with constructive policies, despite maximum US pressure.

The purpose of this study is to conduct comparative review of Iran and Turkey’s cultural diplomacy in Iraq after the US invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Iran and Turkey, as two influential powers in the developments of the Middle East, are trying to advance their cultural diplomacy in Iraq according to the nature of their government, goals, and aspirations. The main question of the research is, “On what approach are the effectiveness factors of Iranian and Turkish cultural diplomacy in Iraq between 2003 and 2020 based?” The hypothesis is that Iranian cultural diplomacy in Iraq after 2003 has been following Shi’ism, the axis of resistance, and Iranianism as the cornerstones of its approach, as opposed to Turkish cultural diplomacy that is based on Turkish nationalism and neo-Ottomanism. Accordingly, each of these governments is trying to exert influence in Iraq using soft power and cultural diplomacy. In doing this, Iran and Turkey have different conditions, opportunities, threats, and tools to advance their cultural diplomacy. The research findings indicate that Iran is in a better position than Turkey in terms of conditions, opportunities and tools but the focus on Shiism and the issue of resistance in Iraq has led to little attention paid to other features of cultural diplomacy. In contrast, Turkey, with its benefit-oriented and opportunistic approach, has been able to make the most of tools such as Kurdish language and literature, media diplomacy, tourism development, scientific and educational topics, etc. through careful planning and has gained more influence in Iraq. The method of data analysis is descriptive-analytical and the data collection was carried out via library research.  

Changes in the structure of the global single-polar system and the transition towards a multi-polar order highlight the new norms of the global order. It is clear that the dominance of the new normative order and the elements of the new structural meaning are primarily considering the decline of US hegemony and its redistribution among new poles. These conditions create more space for the expression of competing cultural ideologies. In such a space, there are ample opportunities for culturally and civilizational rich actors like Iran to emerge. The importance of this issue becomes more apparent when we realize that key players in the new structure, such as China, lack the high capacity to confront Western cultural-hegemonic dominance regarding the absence of modern software. In an era where the main characteristic is "Power Dispersion," some of the material shortcomings of the Islamic Republic of Iran can be remedied to play an effective role in the new era of cultural power vacuum, if attention is paid to its software capacities. Therefore, the main question of this research is formed by examining what software-based priorities for the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards the cultural Iran region suggest. In response to this question, with a descriptive-analytical approach by gathering a library of data, highlighting the coordinates of the new global order, and examining the coordinates of the cultural Iran region. The main recommendations of this new situation for the foreign policy of I.R.I in the cultural Iran region are explored. The results indicated that the framework of this software capacity can be explained in three dimensions: culture, values, and foreign policy. This capacity has gained a particular significance in connection with the concept of the Islamic Revolution and the opportunities it has created.

Today, most countries are aware that recognizing the capacity of international scientific and technological cooperation is essential to national interests. Therefore, cooperation in these fields can be included as a field with many capabilities to ensure the national interests of countries in the form of "science and technology diplomacy". Science and technology diplomacy means the use of science and technology and its capacities and achievements in the process of relations with other countries and nations as a mechanism for establishing new relations, strengthening relations between states, and increasing soft power for countries. Considering that Iran and Russia have a high international position in terms of science production; academic, scientific, and technological relations can lead to the national interests of the two countries. Accordingly, in this research, the existing capacities between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation in the field of joint scientific cooperation between the two countries are explained.

The occurrence of the Islamic Revolution in the “Age of Information” and the development of rational relations based on materialism have surprised the world due to its soft power. Hence, in this research, we sought to clarify “what identity threats may expose the true structure of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the risk of infiltration and influence of any foreign culture or their domination?”In response to this question, we must say that the foundations of soft power in the Islamic Republic of Iran are based on components such as Shiite Islamism, Iranian nationalism, independence, fighting with the global arrogance, and revolutionism, which form the power structure in the Islamic Republic of Iran and have associated with many successes both inside and outside the country. However, in some cases, due to the failure of building the macro-policies based on those components and the one-dimensional and non-systematic attitude toward these components, which are defined around the central axis of Shi ̓a Islamism, they turn into anti-agent and threatening factors. In this research, we tried to identify and examine such potential and actual threats based on the software resources adapted from the theoretical framework relying on the theory of threat in the field of security using a descriptive-analytical method according to views and ideas of the Majesty Imam Khomeini (PBUH) and the Supreme Leader as the leaders of the Islamic Republic.

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.