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The Modalities of Iranian Soft Power: from Cultural Diplomacy to Soft War

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The Modalities of Iranian Soft Power: from Cultural Diplomacy to Soft War View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE bs_bs_banner provided by Open Research Online POLITICS: 2014 VOL ••(••), ••–•• doi: 10.1111/1467-9256.12084 Special Issue Article The Modalities of Iranian Soft Power: From Cultural Diplomacy to Soft War Edward Wastnidge The Open University Through exploring Iran’s public diplomacy at the international level, this article demonstrates how the Islamic Republic’s motives should not only be contextualised within the oft-sensationalised, material or ‘hard’ aspects of its foreign policy, but also within the desire to project its cultural reach through ‘softer’ means. Iran’s utilisation of culturally defined foreign policy objectives and actions demonstrates its understanding of soft power’s potentialities. This article explores the ways in which Iran’s public diplomacy is used to promote its soft power and craft its, at times, shifting image on the world stage. Keywords: Iran; soft power; culture; foreign policy; public diplomacy Introduction Iran has a long history of showcasing its culture to the world, drawing on at times conflicting reference points. This has formed a key part of its public diplomacy since the time of the Shah and continues to influence the way the Islamic Republic projects influence on the world stage. Public diplomacy has a long history of providing a means for countries to project their soft power (Nye, 2008), and this article will explore the cultural aspects of Iran’s public diplomacy in this endeavour. In doing so, it will examine two elements of Iranian soft power projection: firstly culture-based initiatives and related foreign policy approaches, and secondly on defen- sive aspects that permeate the Islamic Republic’s conception of the utility of soft power. This will help to highlight a relatively unexplored aspect of not only Iran’s foreign relations, but also those of authoritarian regimes which, with the exception of China, remain somewhat under-researched. The emphasis is very much on ‘top-down’ initiatives, whereby the state has control over the aspects of soft power that it wants to project and harness. What is particularly instructive about the Iranian case, however, is the dualism that exists in the Islamic Republic’s power structure, with an elected President enacting much of Iran’s public diplomacy on the world stage, but with ultimate authority residing with the Supreme Leader who retains control of the levers of Iran’s soft power. Although this dichotomy is not always clear in Iran’s attempts at harnessing and projecting soft power, this article highlights some of the different ways in which it can be articulated. Thus Iran provides us with an example of how a unique theocratic regime enacts soft power on the world stage, while at the same time highlighting its complex power structure. Following an explanation of soft power and its limitations as an analytical tool, the article provides a historical backdrop to Iranian soft power in the twentieth century. It then © 2014 The Author. Politics © 2014 Political Studies Association 2 EDWARD WASTNIDGE demonstrates how soft power projection has been enacted through culturally defined foreign policy approaches and initiatives, evidenced during the presidencies of both Mohammad Khatami (via his Dialogue among Civilisations initiative) and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as the work of Iran’s ‘Islamic Culture and Relations Organisation’ (ICRO), through its network of Iranian cultural centres abroad. The article then moves on to look at the more defensive elements of Iranian soft power as articulated through the international, foreign- language output of the state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). This section will highlight the defensive posture assumed by the Islamic Republic, which sees the Supreme Leader asserting his authority through appropriating the soft power concept in the notion of a ‘soft war’ between Iran and the West. Diplomacy and soft power The idea of soft power developed by Joseph Nye (1990, 2004) was initially applied to US foreign policy. Its key premise can be defined as the ability to obtain what you want through co-option and attraction rather than the hard power of coercion and payment. In interna- tional politics, the soft power of a country rests primarily on its culture (in places where it is attractive to others) and its foreign policies (when they are seen as legitimate and having moral authority). Political values are also significant, and in the case of America, Nye points out that promotion of democracy could be considered as such. The means by which this soft power is communicated is also important, as states look to integrate the notion of soft power into their diplomatic maneuverings, particularly those that are targeted towards a wider international audience beyond the confines of high-level deliberations between governments. Thus, public diplomacy becomes an important outlet for such propagation. Leonard, Stead and Smewing (2002, pp. 10–11) define three distinct purposes, or areas of public diplomacy – namely political/military, economic and societal/cultural. The latter is particularly important as public diplomacy plays an important role in acting as the means by which a country can promote its soft power. Public diplomacy can be seen as an instrument that mobilises a country’s soft power resources (Nye, 2008, p. 95). These can be mobilised through numerous channels, be they via broadcast media or cultural and information exchange, or at high-level discussions between heads of state/government and political speeches. This article mainly focuses on the cultural elements of Iran’s public diplomacy, and will therefore primarily use the term ‘cultural diplomacy’ to define these actions. Cultural diplo- macy involves the application of a state’s cultural policy abroad through the exchange of ideas, information, culture and the arts (Cummings, 2001, p. 1), with the intent of appealing to foreign audiences from publics to governments in the hope of enhancing their image. States have arguably become more image-conscious and seek to appropriate the benefits of advances in communication technology to promote themselves on the international stage. The speeches and statements from leaders and officials that help form the image of a state remain important as a means of promoting a certain image, and can act as a useful soft power tool themselves. The notion of soft power is also a good exemplar of the importance of ideas in foreign policy. It is a concept that straddles both theory and practice, and its utility is evidenced in the widespread currency that it has among a range of governments. Scholars such as Ding (2008, 2010), Gill and Huang (2006), Paradise (2009), Wang (2008) and even Nye himself (Nye, 2005; Nye and Jisi, 2009) have written widely on China’s harnessing of soft power. These are important contributions in the light of China’s increasing importance on the world stage. © 2014 The Author. Politics © 2014 Political Studies Association POLITICS: 2014 VOL ••(••) THE MODALITIES OF IRANIAN SOFT POWER 3 They highlight the importance placed by Beijing on utilising soft power resources, be it through its successful hosting of the 2008 Olympics, or its recent expansion of Confucius Institutes throughout the world. Soft power has also featured as an analytical tool in studies of Turkish foreign policy (Ogˆuzlu, 2007; Önis¸ and Yilmaz, 2009), and formed a key plank of its foreign policy discourse as articulated by current Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutog˘lu (2010). As we shall see, this is a trend that has entered policy-making circles in Iran too. Other studies have sought to provide empirical test cases for soft power (Gomes-Saraiva, 2014; Maliukevicˇius, 2013; Otmazgin, 2012), but with the exception of China, few thus far have attempted to explore the soft power ambitions of states that are perceived as authoritarian, and even less so those who operate a theocratic-based government such as Iran. The Iranian case is particularly instructive as it demonstrates how authoritarian states practice a form of soft power projection that is markedly state-led. This top-down approach is in contrast to Nye’s considerations of grassroots cultural exchange through non-state actors. One can therefore draw some similarities from Iran’s approach with those of China and Russia in terms of the state’s role in seeking an improvement in their public image on the world stage, while maintaining strict authority in their respective domestic polities. However, this article high- lights the complexities of maintaining a consistent line in Iran’s case due to its complex internal power structure consisting of competing centres of power. Thus, we can see how the President performs one role in terms of representing Iran on the world stage, while the Supreme Leader maintains control over some important soft power tools, such as the Islamic Republic’s international media operations and its cultural attaches and related cultural out- reach centres through the ICRO. While some hopes were raised by Khatami’s aspirations for improving civil society in Iran, thus furthering its soft power aspirations in the way that Nye would proscribe, these were ultimately stymied by a conservative backlash against Khatami’s reformist front in Iran. It also worth noting here that Iran’s large diaspora plays a major role in cultivating its own cultural industries that, if Iran was a Western-style democracy, could be part of a potentially more widely attractive cultural package. However, much of this content is developed by figures that have left Iran, often due to their differences with the Islamic Republic. Indeed, much of this output is viewed distrustfully by the Islamic Republic as part of a wider ‘soft war’ in which Iran is engaged in a battle for hearts and minds with the West via the international news media. Up to this point, the term ‘soft power’ has been presented as a given.
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