The facilitating role of sport in foreign relations of the US and Iran

Abstract

The soft power of the Islamic Republic of Iran, after fourteen years of it’s revolution, has been influenced by various macro and micro concepts that have been repeatedly challenged by Western countries, especially the United States; So, Islamic Republic of Iran, in light of recent years' successes in the international field of sports, including seventeenth among the 206 countries in the Olympic 2012 can use this capacity to expand its interactions in the international arena. The purpose of the present study was initially to explore the concepts of strengthening Iran's soft power through sport and to design a favorable paradigm for the development of diplomatic relations with Western countries, especially the United States. Then, SPSS and PLS software were used to investigate the correlation between variables based on Spearman test, exploratory factor analysis and finally structural and interpretive modeling of independent and dependent variables. The findings showed that seven factors of economic development, religious flow, transformation and communication, cultural exchange, national unity, political currents and peacebuilding were in four levels influenced by Iran's international sporting environment.

Keywords

• Estados Unidos, Irán, Occidente, Diplomacia deportiva, Olímpico