The role of education in iran's soft power and public diplomacy activities: The case of International Al Mustafa University

The Role of Education in Iran's Soft Power and Public Diplomacy Activities: The Case of International Al Mustafa University With globalization, hard power elements have started to remain in the background in inter-state relations. In this context, states focus on gaining the consent of other actors. In other words, the use of soft power has come to the fore. Within the scope of the use of soft power, states focused on gaining the sympathy of the people of the countries. The policy implemented within this framework is called public diplomacy. The most important area of public diplomacy is education diplomacy. Due to the increasing importance of educational diplomacy, many states attach importance to international education activities. As a matter of fact, in this thesis, concepts of power, soft power, public diplomacy and education diplomacy are explained in conceptual and theoretical level. Based on this, in the second part of the thesis, the countries that set an example in terms of educational diplomacy in the world are examined. The examples examined in the second part are the USA, Germany, France and China. In the third part, education diplomacy of Iran, which is the main subject of the thesis, is discussed. The main institution that stands out in Iran's international education activities is the International Al Mustafa University. There is no thesis, article or report in the literature that examines the subject. This shows that the thesis has an original quality. In this context, this thesis based on literature review aims to fill a gap in the literature.