determining the position of urban diplomacy in the development of geopolitical influence

urban diplomacy, as a new subject, has taken shape parallel to national diplomacy among the governments of various countries throughout the world. today, many metropolitan and world cities use it as a tool to achieve their economic, cultural and social goals in line with their national interests. one of the objectives of the foreign policy of any state is the development of their realm of influence; that is, the formation of visible or invisible areas to spread the values they have in mind. to put it another way, the formation of a realm of influence allows a country to play a role in international affairs outside its geographical frontiers. following a descriptive, analytical method and making use of library sources, the present paper is based on the major assumption that there exists a direct relationship between urban diplomacy and the development of a country’s realm of influence. the findings of the study also confirm the hypothesis just mentioned; namely, the more the major cities of a country are recognized throughout the world, the broader a country’s realm of influence would turn out to be.