Culture, politics, and interests: Comparing China and India's soft power strategy ‎in the ‎case of Pakistan and Iran

The natural process of international politics demands to hold their position through either ‎forced action or cooperative ways. In there, the theory and empirical application of soft ‎power has emerged as a peaceful tool where a state can use their intangible resources in an ‎attractive and harmonious way for ensuring its national interests. Many considerable ‎indicators suggest that China and India have capacities and resources that can be a foremost ‎case to understand the discourse of soft power. Pakistan and Iran, regional, historical and ‎strategic neighbours of China and India, have so many shared relations with each other. ‎Building on existing literature, this dissertation argues that, in its unique construction, the ‎concept of China and India's version of soft power has a vast impact on its neighbours, ‎especially in the case of Pakistan and Iran. By employing Joseph S. Nye's "Soft Power" ‎theory and forming the new concept of "Power of Bonding", this dissertation formulated ‎China and India's soft power narratives and applied it through the empirical assesses of two ‎case studies such as, firstly, China and India's soft power strategy in the case of Pakistan and ‎secondly, China and India's soft power strategy in the case of Iran. Based on this theory, this ‎dissertation seeks explanations for the question of "How China and India respectively, ‎strategically and comparatively used the soft power resources to construct or re-affirm their ‎zones of influence in the case of Pakistan and Iran?". To answer this research question, and ‎test hypotheses developed from theories and previous literature, this study depended on ‎different research methods such as content analysis from the two newspapers, one from ‎Pakistan- DAWN and another from Iran-IRNA and conducting personal interviews to test the ‎result of newspapers contents. Primary data was created by a semi-structured interview from ‎China, India, Pakistan and Iran. Secondary data was collected from the previous literature, ‎including from the government official reports, academic books, journals, and non-academic ‎publications. To reach the find out, the structure of the dissertation analysis the theory of soft ‎power, China's soft power strategy in Pakistan and Iran, And India's soft power strategy in ‎Pakistan and Iran. For empirical analysis, this dissertation, thus, carries out: I) comparing the ‎understanding, resources, strategies, influences and uses of China and India's soft power in ‎the case of Pakistan and Iran and II) find out and assesses the areas of influences of China and ‎India's soft power strategy in the case of Pakistan and Iran in the three thematic areas, ‎including 'power of bonding' through cultural attractions, and attributions; political and ‎diplomatic engagement, and economic partnerships. By analysing and assessing China and ‎India's soft power strategy in the case of Pakistan and Iran from comparative perspectives, ‎this dissertation seeks to contribute to the soft power literature through a theoretical ‎replication based on non-Western international relations theory, the concept, and its ‎empirical application in the case of China and India. ‎