A Study of America's Tactics of Psychological Warfare against the Islamic Republic of Iran after the Assassination of Gen. Soleimani

Since Donald Trump came to power, the United States endeavored in different ways to bring the Islamic Republic of Iran back to the negotiation table for nuclear, missile and regional issues. These options started with threatening and encouraging, and led finally to the assassination of Martyre Ghasem Soleimani- which was kind of an announcement of war. The United states’ hostile actions after the assassination of Martyre Ghasem Soleimani continued, this time taking on the shape of psychological warfare. The main question of the present research is: What methods and tactics did Trump use in his psychological warfare against the Islamic Republic of Iran? To answer the above question, this research used two methods, namely qualitative content analysis and analytical-descriptive method. It follows that the methods of psychological warfare were identified. Then, the examples were adapted and compared with the models by using analogical strategy. The findings of the research showed that the most important tactics of psychological warfare were as follows: making enemies, labeling, daemonizing, dividing, projection, crafting big lies, exaggeration, foreshortening, humiliating and weakening, distributing information in an eyedropper form, news selection, mythologizing, and pretending integration. It appears that the United States’ failure to achieve the entire objectives in assassinating Gen. Soleimani accounts for the reason why Trump has drawn on this kind of psychological warfare.