The Role of Public Diplomacy in Enhancing Post-Taliban Iran-Afghanistan Ties by Emphasizing Zaharana's Theory of Communication Action

Today, in addition to traditional diplomacy, countries have shown interest in public diplomacy and are trying to use it to advance their goals and support their interests. Iran is no exception and has been trying to conduct its public diplomacy in any region, especially Afghanistan, and in this way has used various tools and methods. Afghanistan is one of the target communities that can be positively affected due to its many linguistic, cultural, religious, historical and other commonalities with Iran. In this research, it has been try to pay attention to the concept of public diplomacy and to examine the public diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Afghanistan. Finally, the factors that increase the ties between the two countries should be studied. This study addresses the question of what is the role of Iranian public diplomacy in post-Taliban Afghanistan in increasing ties between the two countries? The research hypothesis also suggests that Iran has used political, cultural, educational, and economic methods in its public diplomacy in post-Taliban Afghanistan, and that these actions have increased empathy and, consequently, increased ties between the two countries. To evaluate the research hypothesis, Zaharena theory of communication action has been used, which measures the degree of relations and proximity between countries using three indicators; Measures political, economic and cultural-educational relations.