Throughout history, many nations have relied on historical phenomena, narratives, and myths to define their identities and their relation to the outside reality. When narratives survive the test of time and space, they become meta-narratives which shape the worldview and the conduct of the societies they encompass. In addition to having profound effects on the socio-cultural process, meta-narratives sometimes influence and explicate the international behavior of a nation.

The American Corner...was assembled by the American Embassy here and is an example, writ small, of the sort of cultural programs — “soft power,” in the diplomatic nomenclature — that the State Department will emphasize after the last troops leave. Even in this arena of cultural and educational links, United States diplomats say they hope to gain leverage over Iran.

A group of Iranian and South Korean artists will be gathering in Masuleh in northern Iran to create artworks with the central theme of a culture of peace for ten days beginning on November 23. The artworks will later go on display in an exhibition at the Iranian Artists Forum.

“JAMM is a vessel to promote cultural diplomacy,” the founders state on their website. “Our goal is to advance Arab and Iranian artists in the West, and Western artists in the East, and thus encourage further collaboration between the two,” they explained.

However, the fact that Israel’s president Shimon Peres now calls military action “more and more likely” suggests that, regardless of the eventual decision, Israel has embarked on a public diplomacy campaign intended to seize international attention.

A favorable image of Iran, once widely held in the Arab world, has started to erode in the last few years and since the beginning of 2011, it has deteriorated sharply. This is because the wave of unrest in the streets of the Arab world has been accompanied by a major shift in perceptions of Iran.

Conditions within Iran, from rising inflation to widespread unemployment to economic stagnation, suggest that Tehran could still go the way of Tunis, Cairo and Tripoli. Against that backdrop, renewed “engagement” with the Iranian regime wouldn’t just be futile; it would be fatal to prospects for real grassroots change within Iran.

Obama should return to his original approach and test the Iranians to see if there is any room for dialogue and agreement. Engaging with Iran, putting its nuclear program under some kind of supervision and finding areas of common interest (such as Afghanistan) would all be important goals.