Description
The scholarly discussions of the role of public diplomacy is one of the neglected parts of Iran’s foreign policy with regards to the dominance of the realist-materialistic approach in the literature focussing on the hard power tools of Iran. Nevertheless, the multifaceted foreign policy approach of the Iranian regime also employs public diplomacy. However, when the literature on Iranian public diplomacy is discussed, these discussions are mostly identified with Iran’s expansionist approach. Indeed, these explanations lack how these policies are differentiated from each other under the different presidential eras. I argue that Iran, stigmatized due to the label of “rogue state” and “axis of evil”, conducts public diplomacy in order to overcome its negative image, and its public diplomacy aims to construct a positive image through the discursive practices of Iran’s presidents. For this analytical explanation, despite the distinct differences between Khatami and Ahmadinejad, both presidents instrumentalized public diplomacy during their presidencies. What distinguishes them was not only their approach towards the international environment but also how the international environment deemed them. This paper aims to show that how the presidential era of Khatami and Ahmadinejad embodied Iran’s public diplomacy which was shaped by its stigmatized identity and related to status-seeking foreign policy in international society.
