Iran’s Cognition of the “Belt and Road” Initiative from the Perspective of Cognitive Psychology

Abstract

The “Belt and Road” initiative is a foreign cooperation initiative proposed and actively promoted by China in 2013. Its purpose is to promote the formation of a community of responsibilities, interests, and destiny among countries along the route by building mutually trusting economic and trade relations under the background of a new type of globalization. The Middle East is a must-pass and an important region for the “Belt and Road” initiative, and its attitudes and policies are crucial to the smooth progress of the “Belt and Road” initiative. There are many countries in the Middle East, and their national conditions are also different. It is not realistic to study one by one. Therefore, this article attempts to start from the representative and overall significance of regional powers to study their perceptions of the “Belt and Road” initiative. This article takes Iran, a major country in the Middle East, as the main research object to study its perception of the “Belt and Road” initiative. This article applies the theoretical methods of cognitive psychology to Iran for case analysis. First, this article divides the subject of cognition into three levels: political, academic, and non-governmental; Secondly, this article will summarize the main factors that influence Iran’s dual cognition through the interpretation of the three cognitive subjects’ cognition of the “Belt and Road” initiative; Finally, this article focuses on Iran’s cognition of the “Belt and Road” initiative. Propose countermeasures to deepen benign cognition.