Strengthening General Diplomacy and Its Addressees, and Objectives from Ayatollah Khamenei’s Perspective

Authors

1 Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Guilan.

2 Ph.D. Student, International Relations, University of Guilan

3 Ph.D. Student, International Relations, University of Guilan.

Abstract

Power is the basis of both traditional and public (new) diplomacy. Of course, in traditional diplomacy, the power of hardware (military and economic), and in general diplomacy, the power of software are dominant. Although diplomacy is one of the major dimensions of a country's foreign policy, it is inherently null and is considered to be more of an instrument of exploitation of power. Therefore, general diplomacy means the art of line up and exploiting the elements of the soft power of the country by state and non-state actors in order to influence and persuade foreign and non-governmental addressees. Referring to the statements of the Supreme Leader shows that the emphasis and priority of the Supreme Leader is in three areas, namely, the reference, nature and addressees of diplomacy, in its affirmative aspect - means actions that must be taken by public and domestic institutions - and in its negative aspect - resistance to the destructive actions taken by the enemy - is based on elements of soft power, which is the basis for action in public diplomacy. In line with the impact of public diplomacy, the culmination of the belief of the supreme leader has manifested in his letter to Western youth in 2013 after the events of France and bolding the Islamophobia project by the Western powers. Therefore, the research question is that "on the basis of the ideas of the Supreme Leader, who and what are the audiences and objectives of general diplomacy in the first place and how can it be strengthened?" It can be argued that audiences are categorized in a prioritized order, the Muslims of the region are at the first and the western general audiences are at the final; and the goal of general diplomacy is to promote revisionism (revolutionary discourse) among nations and in addition to having a specific plan, it should be used in the proper design, utilization of media, art and educational strategy.
 
 

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