Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Iranian use of soft power

This story comes from PressTV, the Iranian international broadcaster whose goal is to present the Iranian point of view to the world.

PressTV credits this story to the Islamic Society of North America. The ISNA says its mission is to be "an association of Muslim organizations and individuals that provides a common platform for presenting Islam, supporting Muslim communities, developing educational, social and outreach programs and fostering good relations with other religious communities, and civic and service organizations."

Does this report promote those goals? It does describe the use of soft power. It is also a reminder to keep the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in mind.

Soft power to counter the US

"With Indian and Russian support, Iran is to form a soft balance of power to counter US unilateralism in the world.

"The Political Research Center Office of the Iranian Parliament said in a report '... the true enemy of Iran in the three subsystems of the Persian Gulf region, Central Asia and Southwest Asia is the US'...

"The report continued that since the hard balance of power is not feasible at present, the Islamic Republic of Iran with the support of India and Russia will form a new front of a soft balance of power to neutralize the aggressive policies of the US towards Iran...

"Thus the policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is in line with India's policy of preventing the US from claiming sovereignty over the world, and is to seek a multipolar world...

"Another part of this report says: 'The Islamic Republic of Iran has shifted its policies from a position of direct confrontation to a model of cooperation and understanding'."


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