Policymaking Model of Promotion of International Cooperation of Religious Studies Centers of Iran

Cultural and scientific relations and cooperation of seminaries, as inheritors of Shia School of Thought, with the scholars and centers of other religions and religious denominations in other parts of the world, have a bright history. The interreligious and intra-religious scientific and intellectual interactions between the seminaries in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon and their valuable outcomes bear fine testimony to this contention. But, when that situation is juxtaposed with the current international presence of religious studies centers, on the one hand, and the needs, demands and questions of scientific and cultural centers outside the country, on the other, the weak and ineffective role of these centers becomes clearer. Hence, a question is raised that should be answered by the people in charge of policymaking and managing of the religious studies centers: How can the presence and international cooperation of religious studies centers be strengthened? 

Attempts have been made in this paper to identify the effective factors in scientific cooperation and formulate a comprehensive policymaking model. In order to enrich and promote religious studies in international arena, this model focuses on factors such as joint communication model, characteristics of partners, environmental conditions of the cooperation atmosphere and religious studies approaches. These factors have been explained in the form of 17 major and minor elements. These elements are introduced as criteria to identify the problems and solutions in order to promote and improve cooperation of the religious studies centers. Also a managerial process has been introduced for operationalizing of this conceptual framework.