Convergence

Outward-oriented economies seem to grow faster than inward-looking ones. Does the literature on convergence have anything to say on this? In the dynamic Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson model، with factor-price equalization، there is no convergence of incomes. This is because with identical preferences and return to capital، irrespective of initial levels the growth rates of consumption are the same. In the Specific Factors model، there is factor price equalization in the long run، but incomes depend on endowments of non-accumulable factors. Different specifications for the intersectorally mobile factors have different implications for development (as well as convergence).

This paper examines convergence of real GDP per capita in the selected East Asian countries and this relationship with selected Middle East countries during the period 1950-2009. The reason behind this refers to the fact that East Asia countries (including China، Hong Kong، Singapore، Malaysia، Indonesia، Thailand، Japan and South Korea) have been involved in achieving success arising from regional cooperation. On the other hand، the Middle East region has been well-known in producing and exporting oil (Iran، Iraq، Kuwait، Qatar، Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates). However، these countries have had strong relationship whit East Asian countries through trade and investment relations. Overall، the question is whether such strong relationship has led to a reduction in the real per capita gap between the selected countries of the both regions. To find the answer، income departures across countries are evaluated from several panel data unit root tests. We and no evidence supporting the existence of convergence process for the income in the East Asian and Middle East countries. But in each region، convergence within countries can not reject.

Iran’s foreign policy toward international organizations has always oscillated between divergence and convergence, depending on the status of the country in question and the statesmen's point of the view. This study aimed to examine the status of international organizations in Iran’s foreign policy. A divergent approach to international organizations was adopted during 1981-1988 and 2005-2013. This believe in a domination system in the world, and try to change the status quo and the fundamental rules of the international system. One could argue that the domination of this approach in Iran’s foreign policy undermined the national interests and security. On the other hand, since 1979, it has been revealed that whenever Iran has had a convergent interaction with international organizations (i.e., 1979-1980 and 1988-2005); it has helped Iran's national interest and security. Furthermore, cooperation with international organizations in various fields has provided opportunities for political, economic and cultural ties of Iran.

This study was conducted for designing and explaining the convergence-based financial services marketing model in Tehran Stock Exchange. This study was mixed (qualitative-quantitative), and in the qualitative phase, a group of experts in the field of financial services marketing and senior managers of asset management companies were selected and unstructured interview was done for modelling based on ground theory. In the quantitative phase, customers of asset management companies were considered as the statistical population and 500 statistical samples were selected and questioned by questionnaires and 26 hypotheses derived from the initial model were tested. All hypotheses were confirmed but the effect of risk-taking and history of financial services providers on convergence of trends and indexes were rejected. There was also no relationship between history and requirements. Also, conditions and economic fluctuations governing the society and history of financial services providers did not have a significant effect on adherence to requirements of stock exchange.   Finally, the results led to the design of convergence-based financial services marketing model in Tehran Stock Exchange (based on the structure of the paradigm model). Comparing the model of the present study with previous models in the field of financial services marketing, an important and innovative point is the attention of asset manager companies to convergence in the financial markets, which was identified as one of the effective strategies for promoting perceived value and customer loyalty and its effect was also proved. Paying attention to the concept of convergence and contagion between markets and paying attention to parallel markets to get more returns is a significant factor in attracting financial services customers.

In his Nichomachean ethics, Aristotle has introduced Friendshiop (philia) as a civic virtue higher than justice. After Aristotle, Latin and Iranian thinkers articulated on the notions of “Amiticia” and “Dusti” as equivalent to Aristotel’s philia. In the modern times, while justice was regarded as legal system protecting individual rights, Friendship was reduced to a personal concern and was confined to private sphere of life. In recent time once again friendshiop has entered the intellectual melieu both in Iranian and German culture. In this paper three models of Friendship, namely Phronetic, Erfanic, and Phenomenological, are analysed, and, according to what these models pertain to, it is suggested that as regards convergence, it can be brought about by Friendship more than by Justice.

The capital market in each country is considered as the most important part of the economy and its fluctuations may reflect the economic situation of the country. In this paper, the hypothesis of convergence of stock market price indices in Asian countries during the period from January 2007 to February 2017 is investigated using cluster analysis method. The results show that there is no evidence of overall convergence among countries. However, there are three converging clusters between stock markets while the Jordanian stock market forms a non-convergent cluster. These findings should assist portfolio managers in the design and implementation of appropriate portfolio management strategies. Regulatory authorities can also benefit from the design of financial regulation.

The significance of neighborhood relations in geopolitics cannot be over-emphasized. As a space for neighborhood relations, sport is one of the most effective issues in power, competition, and convergence on national and transnational scales. International competitive sports are useful for remembering people to compare themselves with the other nation’s achievements and capabilities. Meanwhile, the Persian Gulf is the most significant region in the world due to its energy resources and strategic position. Tensions between the regional states have increased, especially between Iran and some Arab states. Most of these tensions have appeared in sport and athletic competitions. Therefore, the emergence of political-geographical rivalry in sports contests can be studied as the geopolitics of sport. This descriptive-analytic paper explained the power aspects in sport and politics from the point of the geopolitics of sport in the Persian Gulf region and studied geopolitical competitions in the region and its interaction in the sporting arena. The results of the research indicate that sports contests can bring sphere of convergence and cooperation and in some cases can provide the increasing and strengthen of tension and competition.

The oil market is affected by the supply of oil by oil-producing countries. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was established in the 1960s to balance oil prices in favor of oil-producing countries. OPEC has gone through a period of convergence and divergence since its inception under political-economic events and crises. In turn, this convergence and divergence have had a significant impact on oil production, supply, and prices in the oil market. OPEC members form a diverse range of population, size, reserves, output, gross domestic product, ideology, and type of relationship with world powers. This diversity, along with internal tensions, leads to different approaches on energy markets and production quotas, which has affected the interests of all producing countries. Thus, this study aims to assess the convergence relationship between OPEC members on the strength of this organization on the market. To reach this aim, we have used a qualitative method of descriptive and analytical type using library resources and documents. Findings show that any lack of convergence and understanding between OPEC members has led to increased supply in the oil market and fluctuating prices. These price fluctuations seriously damage the economies of exporting countries.

This study focuses on complexity matching and lexical matching to investigate speech convergence in the conversations of bilingual Persian-English speakers in three language conditions namely Persian, English, and mixed in the context of lingua receptiva as an attempt to investigate such matching mechanisms between a Latin-based language and a non-Latin-based language. Complexity matching investigates convergence in terms of the hierarchical temporal structure of human speech while lexical matching explores convergence in terms of the frequency occurrence of the matched lemmas. For this purpose, 14 master’s students from the Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz majoring in English language conversed with one another in dyadic groups in three language conditions each of which had its own topic namely movies, music, and books. In complexity matching, Allan Factor analysis in terms of multiscale clustering of onset events was considered. In lexical matching, the focus was on the distribution of all lemmas and matched lemmas and the possible correlation between the two. The results revealed a gradual increase in Allan Factor log-log plots in relation to the longer timescales that correspond with discourse patterns for complexity matching. For lexical matching, the positive correlation between all lemmas and matched lemmas (r<sub>s = .607) suggested that as participants talked to each other more, they unconsciously tried to match their psychological perceptions with each other more. This suggests that speech convergence is vigorous in both bilingual and monolingual interactions.

Vicinity in its various dimensions (Geographical, Political, cultural and etc ) has Fundamental importance in convergence and common understanding of the political units. This factor led to Convergence and sustainable security in various aspects of economic, socio-cultural and environmental . Therefore, Health infrastructure, cultural heritage, economic interests and ... have important from the perspective of Geopolitical tourism . Accordingly, this study has raised the question that is the geographic proximities such as Geographical neighbors, Identity – historical, Common cultural heritage, Health, environmental problems, economic interests, political and etc, in relation to Iran and Azarbayejan (Geopolitical tourism) of the two countries can be  resulted in sustainable convergence and security. Explaining the question has been done by the Analytical - Descriptive method and the collection of Data and Information have been done by library study . The results show that in the world of highly evolved, that threats Show themselves In newer dimensions day by day, Geopolitical Tourism can determine the convergence And common understanding between political units - Space of geopolitical contexts. In the meantime, whatever this proximities more and deeper, Tourism geopolitical power as a parameter in the field of convergence and convergence of political - space units - would be more practical. Since the two countries of Iran and Azerbaijan have a variety of cultural, social, environmental, economic interests, etc proximities, Geopolitical Tourism can provide the contexts of shared understanding and the convergence between the two countries.

Vicinity in its various dimensions (Geographical, Political, cultural and etc ) has Fundamental importance in convergence and common understanding of the political units. This factor led to Convergence and sustainable security in various aspects of economic, socio-cultural and environmental . Therefore, Health infrastructure, cultural heritage, economic interests and ... have important from the perspective of Geopolitical tourism . Accordingly, this study has raised the question that is the geographic proximities such as Geographical neighbors, Identity – historical, Common cultural heritage, Health, environmental problems, economic interests, political and etc, in relation to Iran and Azarbayejan (Geopolitical tourism) of the two countries can be resulted in sustainable convergence and security. Explaining the question has been done by the Analytical - Descriptive method and the collection of Data and Information have been done by library study . The results show that in the world of highly evolved, that threats Show themselves In newer dimensions day by day, Geopolitical Tourism can determine the convergence And common understanding between political units - Space of geopolitical contexts. In the meantime, whatever this proximities more and deeper, Tourism geopolitical power as a parameter in the field of convergence and convergence of political - space units - would be more practical. Since the two countries of Iran and Azerbaijan have a variety of cultural, social, environmental, economic interests, etc proximities, Geopolitical Tourism can provide the contexts of shared understanding and the convergence between the two countries.

The importance of the historical study of the Russian and Ottoman neighborhood policy lies in the fact that, in addition to the importance of these two countries in geographical, social, cultural, political and economic dimensions, a large number of Iran's neighboring countries were somehow under the control of these two empires before independence. In this research, the historical process of Iran's relations with these two important neighboring countries has been studied using the descriptive method and discourse analysis of Lacla and Moufe with the approach of historical institutionalism. The results show that during the lifetime of the Ottoman Empire until the disintegration of this empire, coinciding with the Safavid to Qajar governments, we witness two neighboring discourses. The discourse of the first period, the discourse of structural divergence, later with the change of political, economic and social geography and the requirements of the world system, this discourse turns into the discourse of minimal convergence. The discourse of "structural divergence" was formed on the centrality of the neighborhood policy based on the tyranny of the kingdom. The discourse signs of structural divergence included geographical dominance, expansion of religious ideology, political divergence, economic divergence, and world trade. The minimal convergence discourse is based on the centrality of the political signifier based on the court's understanding of global realities. The semantic system of this discourse is based on the main signs of acknowledging the existence of the neighboring country, the unbalanced weight of different aspects of the relations between the two countries, and the continuation of divergence alongside convergence. However, in comparison, the central sign of the discourse of the neighborhood with Russia is tsarist imprudence and court tyranny, and the main signs are passivity against Russia's expansionism, "military weakness in exercising territorial sovereignty, weakness in attracting the Iranian peoples of Central Asia and the Caucasus, and giving in to disgraceful agreements." they give. With the formation of the Soviet Union and the beginning of a new discourse, Russian expansionism in Iran in its territorial form ended and the chapter of ideological confrontations between communism and capitalism began. The discourse of Iran's neighborhood policy with the Ottomans and Russia is like two pieces of a puzzle that are both complementary and effective on each other's growth. If Iran's neighborhood policy regarding Russia and Ottomans had the same importance for Iran's ruling body, it is possible that a different historical path would have been established for the region and Iran.

Southwest Asia, despite its geographical, historical, cultural, and economic contexts, is extremely weak in terms of degree of convergence, and a series of border, political, security, and religious differences have led to critical conditions and suspicion of governments. has brought. Existing economic necessities, especially for countries with closed lands far from the high seas and effective international transportation networks. The aim of this study is to transform the convergence in West Asia and Southwest Asia and Iran's position in it. Southwest Asia is very important from both the land and sea dimensions of the Road Belt Initiative, but since the maritime dimension of this strategy covers a large part of the countries in the region, Southwest Asia has become a region that can play a maritime role. Play a leading role in achieving China's foreign policy goals. There are many reasons for Southwest Asia's pivotal position in China's maritime strategy, which is the most important source of energy for China's economy, as China is heavily dependent on energy imports for economic stability and continued production. Iran played a key role in the ancient Silk Road. From a geopolitical, economic and cultural point of view, Iran is an important country in the road belt initiative.

The approach of convergence in the Islamic world as a prelude and path for Islamic countries to become a new pole of power in the world has been proposed and discussed for a long time among the thinkers and elites of Islamic countries. In this regard, various perspectives and strategies have been presented to achieve this geopolitical goal. Considering Iran's special geopolitical position as the gateway to the heartland of the world and the prospect of becoming a trans-regional power, the authors sought to describe the factors of this convergence and then provide an analysis of different strategies to achieve convergence in the Islamic world with Iran as its pivot. For this purpose, in this research by using a descriptive and analytical method, the five factors of convergence categorized by document collection, and then the strategies to achieve convergence have been mentioned with emphasis on the special capacity of the Islamic Republic to build civilization and play a role in future scenarios.

In recent years, the international system has witnessed the dynamics ofcompetition between great powers over regional key Regions. In this context, theIndian Ocean appears as a strategic and vital region for the powers inside andoutside it, and any development in it affects the security of the region. Consideringthe need to establish security in the current situation where increasing competitionprevails in the Indian Ocean, analyzing and investigating the economicdevelopments of these countries is of great importance. The purpose of thisresearch, which has been carried out by using the descriptive-analytical methodand library sources, is to describe the concept of the Blue Economy and evaluateit in the countries of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council: Bahrain, Kuwait ,Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. It also explains thechallenges and opportunities they face in the Indian Ocean. The results of the studyof the water economy of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council countries indicatethe relative difference in the level of these countries to each other, so if thesecountries seek to achieve development and maximum use of resources andopportunities which the Indian Ocean has provided for them, they also have theintention of overcoming the challenges governing this ocean, and they should putspecial emphasis on the actions that lead to convergence