Border diplomacy and neighborhood policy of the 13th government

The neighborhood policy has been chosen as the approach of the 13th government in the field of foreign policy. To realize this policy, there are different methods and paths, one of these methods is the use of urban diplomacy. Considering that the neighboring countries are the main audience of Iran's neighborhood policy, the category of border diplomacy has been considered as urban diplomacy in order to take advantage of the capacity of border cities and provinces to strengthen the neighborhood policy. Based on this, this article, using Joseph Nye's combined theory of border diplomacy and soft power, emphasizes the use of general and specific capacity of border provinces to play a role in neighborhood policy. Also, this article tries to make policy offers for the use of border diplomacy to realize the neighborhood policy in the 13th government. The most important suggested strategies are: Establishing cultural centrality in the border provinces compared to the regions across the border, Planning to take advantage of the border as an economic opportunity, activating and strengthening border diplomacy in the fields of culture, science and technology, economy, politics and security, health and sports, taking advantage of the tourism capacity of the border provinces, delegating more powers to the provinces in the field of foreign communications, active Becoming the representative office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the border provinces, strengthening the border bazaars, creating the role of neighboring provinces with the countries involved in the takfir crisis in confronting the takfir trend, taking advantage of the huge capacity of the Arbaeen.