فصلنامه مطالعات عملیات روانی
پیاپی 30 (پاییز 1390)

The present article examines the US soft threat in the unrests following the 2009 presidential elections. It attempts to explicate and analyze the US soft threat, which entered the soft war phase in the unrests following the 2009 elections, and introduce its respective functions and elements. Undoubtedly, scrutinizing the role of the US soft threat/war in the post-election developments and identifying its various dimensions, particularly its political aspects, is of great importance. The present research, which is a descriptive-analytic study, begins with this question: To what extent did the US political, soft threat impact the unrests following the 2009 elections? In addition to this main question, some other minor questions were raised: What factors provoked the unrests following the 2009 elections? What kind of relationship is there between these factors and the US political, soft threats? And, what implications have the unrests following the 2009 elections had for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s domestic and foreign policy? The data collected for this study were analyzed using the SPSS software and the single-sample T-test. Our findings suggest that the US political soft threat/war has played the major role in the unrests following the elections.

Velayat-e faqih is the invaluable legacy of Imam Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution's spirit and identity. Today, velayat-e faqih is not merely a political and jurisprudential theory alongside other theories, but it is the essence of the Islamic system and the backbone of the constitution and the legitimacy of the legislative, judicial and executive bodies rests upon it. Velayat-e faqih was the pivot point and the essential pillar of Imam Khomeini’s movement, which restored the identity of the Shiite community centuries after the beginning of asr-e gheybat (the age of concealment). A study of the history of the Islamic Revolution suggests that velayat-e faqih is the right path of the revolution and the standard against which people, groups and political factions’ following the path of the pure Islam and the Islamic Revolution can be measured. Hence, besides securing the principles of the revolution and its religious values and the pursuit of the right Islamic path, velayat-e faqih has made the enemies of the revolution disheartened and has given hope to its followers. Obviously, the more this essential pillar is valued and esteemed, the stronger the Islamic Revolution and political system originating from it will be and the easier it will be to neutralize the threats and make the future prospects brighter. This article attempts to look into some of the blessings that velayat-e faqih has offered to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Given the fact that psychological operations are widely utilized by governments to attract public opinion or the opinions of the elite, it is necessary to develop a theoretical understanding of this phenomenon. However, due to the interdisciplinary nature of this phenomenon, the necessary theoretical tools required for understanding and analyzing it are not found in a specific scientific field. Hence, the field still lacks a set of established theories related to psychological operations. Following an interdisciplinary approach and utilizing the necessary models and concepts from the relevant scientific fields, the present article attempts to offer a theoretical framework to help understand this phenomenon.

Targeting the thought or insight, intellect and ultimately the willpower of their addressees and their behavior, psychological operations have become one of the most dangerous tools. In fact, the strategies and tactics of psychological operations help their users achieve their desired outcome behind battle fronts of their opponents and bring the battle to an end with the lowest property and life costs. Of course, the realization of this result depends on how optimally psychological operations are designed by the specialists and experts. What they vitally need is to know how to select a theme and develop it into a practical idea. If a suitable course is not followed for identification of appropriatethemes, the identification procedure becomes fruitless and making any plans and implementing them become impossible. Hence, consideration of the experiences of the past wars, the imposed war, the recent wars, regional and trans-regional threats, on the one hand, and lack of any theme development process for psychological operations and lack of any suitable model to be used in the armed forces, on the other hand, obviously show the importance of addressing theme development process. This paper tackles the process of theme development in psychological operations.

Over two decades have elapsed since the collapse of the Soviet Union which spent about half a century opposing the West led by America. The conflictbetween the two superpowers during the aforementioned period is known as "Cold War". The disintegration of the Soviet Union as a superpower without firing even a bullet is still the subject of many research projects as the structure of the strategies and techniques utilized in this incidence are thought-provoking. Today, the same methods are still observed in the policies of the hegemonic countries against other nations. Expansion of the concept of Cold War gradually led to the growth of “soft war” in the new setting of international conflicts. Focusing on the last decade of the former Soviet Union, the present article looks into the strategic and technical approaches the United States utilized to confront its rival, the confrontation which led to the dissolution of socialism and its structural manifestation.

Today, the concept of war is not exclusively related to the tools with concrete and hard dimensions, but a number of functional new tools have been introduced into the operational settings which are of a soft nature and high efficiency. One of such tools which is currently utilized by strategists and warmongers in time of war and even prior to the outbreak of war is the media system. Media function as a double-edged sword. Having an affirmative dimension, media fulfill such functions as informing people and facilitating civil learning, on the one hand, and based on their negative dimension, they are utilized in media warfare, and other international modern wars to create crises and tensions and to capture the hearts and minds of nations, on the other. Following the initiation of “media Imperialism” and “the hegemony of media cartels”, the importance of media in fulfilling objectives doubled and accompanying military objectives, this increasing capability gave shape to a new dimension of war called “media war”. Today, media war is utilized to attack Iran. Since the enemies have repeatedly failed in their offensive attempts – a case in point is the eight-year-old sacred defense (imposed war) –, they have resorted to modern wars the pioneer of which has been media war. Aiming at developing and understanding media threats, the present study attempts to answer these questions: What is media war? What are the characteristics of the media war against Iran? What are the strategies to be utilized to cope with the media war against Iran?.

Psychology as a science to study human behavior and mental processes has a lot to do with psychological operations, as the basis of psychological operations is to impact human mind and change his thoughts. In this paper, an attempt is made to explore the role and applications of psychology in psychological operations. To fulfill this, psychology of learning, social psychology, psychology of language and thought, and some other relevant theories widely used in psychological operations are dealt with. First, the background and different definitions of psychological operations are presented. Then, those branches of psychology which have wide applications in psychological operations are introduced and explained. The goals and objectives of psychological operations are discussed next. Then, the success factors in psychological operations such as information, communication media, research, and the methods of psychological operations having stronger psychological nature are introduced. Finally, the relevant implications and recommendations are presented.

The potential attractiveness of a nation is typically called soft power. World nations are currently trying to consolidate their soft power, using different mechanisms. Public diplomacy is a mechanism utilized to exercise soft power in action. Each country enjoys a certain degree of soft power depending on its position and competence; however, the policies and practices of a nation within the framework of public diplomacy can actualize this potential power and can provide for them to be more attractive and influential. On the other hand, when the meaning boundaries of the terms used in the literature of political sciences are not specified, at times, we face some undesirable interference in utilizing them. Although these terms have similarities and overlap, not paying attention to their range of meanings creates confusion in their application. Soft power, psychological operations, public diplomacy, propaganda and cultural relations are among such terms. Focusing on the concept of public diplomacy, this article attempts to discuss the meanings and applications of these soft concepts.

The current threats against the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran can be categorized into military threats and soft threats. Placing priority on either of these threats poses a different security strategy for the decision makers. If military threats are given higher priority in security analyses, the country's security strategy will be affected by military and hardware thoughts and approaches and the social aspects of threats against national security will be given less attention. The present article holds that the strategy of the enemies of the Islamic Republic Iran is currently based on non-military and soft measures along with the threat of military action. Reviewing the concepts of revolution and soft overthrow, this article explores the soft threats against the Islamic Republic and detects the tools and methods of soft measures against its national security.