فصلنامه مطالعات عملیات روانی
پیاپی 36 (تابستان 1392)

Soft war and utilization of soft power resources in the context of human social life has a long history. As a theoretical concept, soft war has been evaluated by scholars within the framework of such theories as soft security, soft power, civil disobedience, etc. during the last two decades, particularly after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. In fact, the theoretical approaches to soft war have been formed in the past two decades. As a strategy to help advance the goals and will of the hegemonic system in dealing with the political systems in conflict with liberal democracy, soft war was put forward principally after the Cold War and was theorized by the Western, especially, Americans, think tanks. On the other side, the Islamic Revolution created a new discourse the cultural and soft dimensions of which dominated its other features. This issue made the Islamic Revolution more powerful, helped it survive and weakened the possibility of repeating hard encounter with it. Hence, changing his approach, the enemy started ‘a full-fledged social, cultural and political battle as the second decade of the Islamic Revolution began. Thus, the Islamic Revolution strongly influenced the enemy’s decision to replace his hard approach with a soft one. This article briefly reviews various soft war strategies and theoretical approaches. In general, it can be said that, with regard to soft war strategies and theoretical approaches, power, security and threat balance has changed under the current conditions. Since power and security are interrelated, with any change in the type and nature of power, new forms of security, threat and security interaction emerge which are considered the joining point of strategies and theoretical approaches.

Soft war and its agents seek to influence the values and indigenous traditions of their target nations and, in doing so, they utilize every means and method to transform and devastate the fundamental values of the unfriendly, target communities. One of the important features and values of religious communities is ‘the Islamic hijab and covering culture and value’, which has increasingly influenced the spirit of resistance and struggle against the enemies. Hence, the soft war agents attempt to attack the Islamic hijab and veiling and fulfill their goals by transforming the culture of veiling since the hegemonic system’s past wars against Muslim nations have proved that their Islamic culture is a strong obstacle to their wishes. Thus, hijab as one of the most significant, indigenous, Islamic symbols of Muslim nations has always been attacked by the hegemonic powers. Hence, the present article aims to answer this question: Why is a soft war waged against hijab and which mechanisms can help us cope with the resulting damages? The findings suggest that the main cause of waging a soft war against Islamic veiling is that this phenomenon can help women maintain their dignity and actively take part in cultural activities, reduce social evils, have a dignified society, confront the West’s cultural invasion, enjoy consistent socialization, strengthen the foundation of the family and have security and psychological tranquility. To fulfill their objectives, the soft war agents utilize various devices such as artistic and cultural products, mass media, fashion, perception war and imaging. If the hegemonic system’s soft war succeeds in devastating hijab, such negative consequence as descent of women’s character, an increase in licentiousness and mental disorders, educational decline, instability in economic activities, cultural consumerism, etc. will result, which, in turn, would seriously harm the Islamic system.

This research work aims at exploring the psychological operations techniques utilized by the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan in the Azarbaijan crisis during the years 1945 – 1946. The main question is, ‘How did the Democratic Party manage to establish and consolidate a self-ruling system in the region in a short period of time (considering the supports of the former Soviet Union)?’ To answer this question, the following hypothesis was developed: To consolidate its ruling system in the Azarbaijan region, the Democratic Party conducted psychological operations against its target audience (the people of the region) using various techniques. The results suggest that the Democratic Party utilized various techniques of psychological operations at various intervals (establishment of the Democratic Party, following separatism and establishment of self-ruling government). The most important techniques they utilized were: scare-mongering, rapid feedback, symbolization, history fabrication and provision of legitimacy/acceptability for aliens which were practiced using the ordinary devices of the time including the media and leaflets. This is a descriptive-analytic study and the required data were collected from library sources and documents.

The importance and urgency of addressing this issue need to be sought in the population composition and religious diversity (Shia, Sunni, and Ahl-e Haqq) of Kermanshah Province. Among various religious sects, the presence of Ahl-e Haq in this province is of particular importance. Having 13 % of the total population of the province, the followers of this sect are scattered in Dalaho (Kerend Gharb), Sahneh, Kermanshah and 8 other towns, and particularly some of them live in proximity to the Iraq border. Hence, the main question of the present study is: What is the impact of Ahl-e Haqq on the security of Kermanshah province? The hypothesis developed on the basis of this question is: With an overwhelming majority of Ahl-e Haqq adherents living in Dalaho located to the west of the province and a considerable number of them living in Sahneh located to the east of the province, the presence of Ahl-e Haqq in Kermanshah province has a dramatic impact on the security of this province. This is an applied research work carried out on the basis of the analytical-descriptive method. The research data were collected from library sources and field work. Hence, first, the demographic characteristics of Ahl-e Haqq are discussed and, then, the security impacts of this sect on the cultural and social environment of Kermanshah province are dealt with. Gaining an understanding of the spatial scope in question, identification of the threat and insecurity elements, recognition of strengths and weaknesses and finding logical mechanisms for proper interaction with Ahl-e Haqq followers and, ultimately, the enhancement of their convergence and alignment with the government are the main achievements of the present study.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of the insightful revolutionary guards in confronting the soft war, which, in turn, can help us recognize the characteristics of insightful revolutionary guards with a focus on the role of the insight and awareness in confronting the soft war. This research has been conducted on the basis of the descriptive-analytical method and the required data have been collected from books, magazines and other sources. Today, it is evident that using various effective, dangerous tools, the enemy attempts, on a massive scale, to eradicate the Islamic Revolution by targeting the minds and hearts of Iranians, undermining their faith and replacing the Islamic culture with a Western culture. In fact, the most serious danger threatening the Islamic Republic is undermining people’s faith and making them cynical about the Islamic culture. The term ‘soft war’, repeatedly pointed out by the Supreme Leader, is not a new concept, but rather it is similar to other notions such as ‘cultural invasion’, ‘cultural attack’ and ‘cultural Nato’ previously mentioned by him, which are all intended to draw the attention of the revolutionary guards to values and Islamic culture. In this article, first, the significant characteristics the revolutionary guards are enumerated and, then, ‘insightfulness and awareness’, as the most important device the revolutionary guards need to confront the soft war, is extensively discussed. Also, the responsibility of Imam Hussein (a.s.) University in training young revolutionary guards has been dealt with.

This paper aims to evaluate ‘the anti-Islamism and Iranophobia discourse’ in the outstanding Western newspapers and media. The Western media have highlighted the point that there is a clear conflict between Islam and human rights. In these media, Islam is introduced as a threat and any political function of Islam is considered undesirable and irrational. On the contrary, the Westernized, secular and moderate Islam compatible with the Western democracy is promoted and advanced by them. According to many communications scholars, in the Western media, the news related to Muslim nations is often bad news including such issues as violence, hostage taking, robbery, war and conflict. Due to the failure of the West in military campaign and their inability to overthrow the Islamic Republic, they have transformed their confrontation pattern in recent years and have been focused on ‘the Iranophobia project’ which has assumed widespread media and diplomacy flavor over time. Cases of human rights violation, military nuclear program, support for terrorism, Iran's alleged involvement in the internal affairs of other countries, etc. are some examples of the West’s psychological operations against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which are analytically examined and discussed in this paper.

2009 presidential elections and the events surrounding it involve many complications and, yet, are important enough to be reviewed and evaluated repeatedly. Hence, the present study intends to answer the following questions: 1) To what extent did impact message on attitude formation affect the 2009 presidential elections?, 2) Which strategies neutralize message impact on attitude formation? To answer the first question, first, message impact on the shaping of the attitudes of the protesters was examined from cognitive, affective and behavioral perspectives and to answer the second question, the hard and soft strategies required to neutralize the devastating impact of message on the shaping of the attitudes were addressed. The present study is an applied research work and was carried out using the descriptive survey method. The results showed that, based on the respondents’ evaluation, the magnitude of message impact on the formation of the three dimensions of the protesters’ attitudes (cognitive, affective and behavioral), with a mean of 3.94, was above the average and significant at 99% confidence level. Also, the results of the dependent t-test indicated that, with regard to confrontation strategies, the impact of the soft dimension, with a mean of 4.10, was above the average and significant at 95% confidence level. However, the impact of the hard dimension, with a mean of 3.17, was slightly above the average and not significant at 95% confidence level.

Sectarianism and adherence to various sects has become an important phenomenon in modern age. This issue has attracted not only the theologians but also a large number of sociologists due to the existence of a strong relationship between this issue and some areas of social and collective life. Particularly, the teachings resulting from the activities of the newly-established religious schools and various sects promote values, norms and practices that, in many cases, are in conflict with the values and norms governing human communities. Although the damages and consequences of the activities of most sects have not been seriously addressed from social and security perspectives, some of these groups need to be given considerable attention since they directly target ethical and humanitarian values and mar social security.