عملیات روانی

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been assaulted by the enemies through various strategies and methods during more than three decades of its life. Changing the hard approach into a soft one is considered the hallmark of the confrontation between the West and the Islamic Revolution. Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolution’s enjoyment of the blessing of Velayat-e Faqih as the leadership of the community is considered the main factor for its success against the multidirectional assault of the enemies. A review of the observations of the Supreme Leader during more than two decades following the end of the Imposed War reveals that, from his viewpoint, the elite’s negligence of culture and cultural infiltration is the most significant danger and threat for the Islamic Republic of Iran. This emphasis was intensified on the brink of the nuclear agreement and opened new research horizons for scholars. The concept ‘infiltration’, introduced after such keywords as ‘cultural aggression’, ‘psychological operations’, ‘soft war’, ‘cultural invasion’, etc., has been accompanied by its necessary requirements and documents. Hence, the present study intends to explicate the concept ‘infiltration’ in the post-JCPOA1 conditions benefiting from the ideas of Imam Khamenei.

Psychological operations is one of the instruments man has utilized to fulfill his goals since the beginning of creation. After nation states were established in 1648 and international relations became more complicated over time and governments required political negotiations, especially after the first and second world wars, it became more common to utilize psychological operations as a handy instrument. Psychological operations are used as a backup mechanism in political negotiations. During negotiations, psychological operations experts try to make friends and allies follow them and put the negotiating rival team under pressure. Having an accurate planning, knowing the addressees, having them under control and being cognizant of the extent of the influence of psychological activities are considered significant issues in putting the negotiating team under pressure and advancing psychological operations. This article attempts to examine the role of psychological operations in political negotiations and explore the importance of this issue in political negotiations and the ways of averting extreme impact of psychological operations on political negotiations.

Most pundits and authors consider psychological operations as measures that help influence the emotions, views and finally behavior of the target group. These are the measures commonly utilized in battle fields and even in political conflicts today. This study examines the psychological tactics employed by the international coalition forces led by the U.S. against Iraq in the twenty-three-day war in 2003. This is an applied research work conducted on the basis of the descriptive-analytic method and by the utilization of written resources, articles, interviews and visual communication media. The findings suggest that the third Persian Gulf war, which was waged following September 11 attacks, was basically proceeded on the basis of psychological approaches and measures. Hence, it can be said that, for the first time, military operations were supplemented by psychological operations. Undoubtedly, evaluation of the U.S. psychological operations strategies and tactics in the third Persian Gulf war and encounter with the new international environment can offer the Islamic Republic of Iran new strategies for dealing with the U.S. threats in this environment.

The Syrian War started about three years ago with the aim of putting Assad’s government aside. Due to the intervention of foreign powers in this war, some have called it a ‘vicarious war’. To win this battle, the enemies of the Syrian government, convened in a group called "the Friends of Syria", utilized a variety of tools including provision of financial and military assistance for the terrorist groups and implementation of psychological operations and propaganda against Assad’s Government. This article, first, introduces the actors in the Syrian War and, then, explores the process of psychological operations in this war and their objectives. The main objective of all instigations in Syrian was to put side Assad’s Government; therefore, the main goal of all the psychological operations conducted in the Syrian War was to prove the illegitimacy of Assad's Government, introduce the terrorist operations as public uprising and pave the way for foreign intervention. Given that after about three years of fighting, the enemies of Assad's Government have not been able to fulfill their objectives yet and the terrorists groups have been defeated in most war fronts, this article, finally, examines the causes of the failure of the psychological operations against Assad’s Government.

Presidential elections in Iran have been accompanied by unique events in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In this process, numerous unprecedented movements were formed against the political system. This study looks into the media practices of BBC Persian TV during the tenth presidential elections in Iran. It is a kind of field research and the method is descriptive survey. The population and sample include the experts of social, military, security and media issues and psychological operations. The sample consisted of 37 subjects selected through the availability sampling technique. Then, the required data were collected on the basis of a researcher-made questionnaire containing 25 items. Based on the respondents’ answers and the Friedman Test, BBC Persian TV utilized a range of PSYOP techniques in 2010 presidential elections, which have been identified and introduced here in the order of the most-frequently used and the most-frequently used ones.

Adoption of coercive economic measures is considered one of the effective forms of strategic psychological operations and a tool which contributes to its more desirable influence. Economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran entered a new phase in 2012 with the multilateral, multifaceted and multilayered embargo against Iran's oil industry. However, in spite of the sensitivity of energy fluctuations, lack of disruption in the energy market despite the discourse governing the technical and political reports and the expectation emanating from the geo-energy and geo-political position of Iran raises this assumption that in spite of the impact of energy security on the security of the Western countries, utilization of psychological operations tactics helped the West to impose oil embargo on Iran as a key component of economic sanctions process with the lowest cost. This research work, carried out on the basis of the applied, analytic-descriptive method, indicates that utilization of psychological operations along with the oil embargo was aimed at a) making the sanctions multilateral, b) assuring the West of energy security particularly reducing the harmful effects stemming from of omission Iran’s oil resources on the European Union and c) reinforcing the effects of sanctions inside Iran aimed at destabilization of the government; nonetheless, this measure has proved to be one the essential tools of reducing the adverse impacts of oil embargo on Iran.

Since a long time ago, man has attempted to gain and maintain power in order to protect himself and, later, dominate others and this struggle still persists. To fulfill this desire and dream, he has made use of every means and method. To this end, human beings and, later, states have equipped themselves with a variety of hardware to defend themselves and they have achieved great success in conquering and invading other lands. What has always been a concern for people and states and has preoccupied their minds is permanence of power. The further the time passes, the more eagerness the states have to gain access to the factors which make power permanent. Psychological operations constitute a kind of battle and widespread, pervasive conflict conducted by means of cultural, literary, artistic, advertising, linguistic and communication tools and methods in order to fulfill various ideological, intellectual, political, social, cultural, economic and other aims. The purpose of psychological operations is to defeat the enemy without fighting and shedding blood and by influencing and capturing human mind, intellect and emotions. Accordingly, depending on its theme, direction and designer, a psychological battle is fulfilled and becomes a good value or an anti-value. In today's world, man can turn into a good value whatever he wishes and he can turn into an anti-value whatever he wants. However, Quranic teachings are beyond human concepts; hence, it establishes and conducts psychological operations on the basis of the nature man and his communities. What clarifies the relationship between psychological operations and the truth and reality is their designer, implementer, direction and purpose.

Psychological operations have always comprised a major part of the activities of warring parties since a long time ago. In guerrilla warfare, guerrillas pay particular attention to psychological operations due to weaknesses and shortcomings related to equipment and staffing. The terrorist group PEJAK, which started its activities on the northwest borders of Iran in 2004, has resorted to every means and every method to undermine the Islamic Republic of Iran. One of the measures followed by this group is psychological operations widely utilized by it beside military actions. This group follows psychological measures at strategic, operational and tactical levels and, at each level, works toward some specific objectives which are intended to be fulfilled by taking advantage of the existing vulnerabilities in the society and within the framework of special themes. Hence, the present paper seeks to answer this question: ‘What are the main objectives and measures of the PEJAK Group in the area of psychological operations and at the strategic, operational and tactical levels?’ To answer this question, the library research method has been used and the aim is to identify and evaluate the goals and actions of this group in the field of psychological operations as well as the vulnerabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Like other terrorist and rebellious groups, this group and its importance have been magnified as a result of the psychological operations.

Psychological operations is an instrument used to demoralize an opponent, force him to surrender and to strengthen friendly forces. Immediately after the occurrence of the Islamic Revolution, this instrument was utilized against it. Following the end of the Imposed War, Iran's nuclear technology hit the news headlines of the media and caught the attention of research centers as well as security-intelligence services of the West, particularly those of the United States. Since then, America has always utilized Iran's peaceful nuclear program as a pretext to panic the public opinion and the governments of the region and the world. America's efforts in this area are mainly based on the application of psychological operations to increase efficacy rather than on the existing realities. Finally, the psychological measures of the U.S. caused Iran's nuclear case to find its way to the UN Security Council and become one of the most important foreign policy issues of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the recent years. Relying on library data and media news, this research work seeks to explicate and clarify America’s PSYOPs methods against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The growth of America’s using psychological operations to increase public concern in the future is an issue that the Islamic Republic of Iran needs to consider in its media measures.

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.

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.

Soft power became increasingly important on the verge of the 21st century or the information age and influenced human life. Soft power can be understood by comparing it with hard power. According to neoliberalism, only the kind of power is important that has lower financial and life costs for its owners and in addition to legitimization, makes public opinion agree with itself. Also, this kind of power achieves its desired goals in a peaceful way. In contrast to hard power which has a simple and static nature, soft power is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon. Soft power is characterized by such elements as authority enhancement, subjectivity, traditionality, comprehensiveness, variability, interdependence with hard power, etc. It benefits from such devices as audio-visual media, cyber warfare and psychological operations. This study is based on the documentary-explanatory method. Following the introduction, the theoretical framework and types of hard power, soft power and smart power are discussed. Then, the sources, targets, indicators and instruments of soft power are analyzed in detail. Finally, the case of America soft power against Iran and Iran’s strategies for confronting it are discussed.

This article reviews utilization of propaganda during the years 1914 to 1968 in World Wars I and II and the Vietnam War. For the first time in World War I, some organizations were established to pursue propaganda and psychological operations. These organizations made use of various psychological techniques in their propaganda operations which will be explicated in this article. Utilization of propaganda is generally considered to be the attribute of fascist regimes. However, it was the democratic nations who, for the first time, made use of propaganda to win public support. As it is delineated here, these nations had greater skills than totalitarian countries in exploiting propaganda. Hence, the differences of propaganda schemes between democratic and totalitarian political systems will be examined at the end of the article.

The present article deals with propaganda and psychological operations. It consists of two parts. The first part delineates that following the Cold War, the concept and strategies of war changed. Within the framework of modern warfare concept, representation of war through media has become more important for both sides of the conflict and consequently they allocate more resources to control and manage war propaganda. This has influenced propaganda techniques too. However, the strategic goals of propaganda as well as propaganda strategies have not undergone much changed. Hence, Harold D. Laswell’s analysis on the strategic goals of propaganda and propaganda strategies during World War I is briefly reviewed the first part of the article. It is argued that although Laswell’s book was written seventy-five years ago, his analysis is still valid and operational. The goals and strategies of propaganda have remained the same but propaganda techniques have got more complicated and, from a terminological standpoint, the term ‘psychological operations’ has replaced the term ‘propaganda’ in political and military literature. Thus, referring to the military definitions, some concepts associated with propaganda are reviewed. How America or NATO utilized propaganda and psychological operations in the three wars (Persian Gulf War, Kosovo War and Invasion of Afghanistan) during the post-Cold War period is what the second part of the paper examines. The possibility of utilizing Laswell’s propaganda strategies to understand America and NATO's measures is also considered. Finally, some attributes of modern warfare related to the war which led to invasion of Afghanistan is discussed.

Among psyop concepts, there are some terms and notions for which one cannot easily find any reliable sources since they are mainly classified. Those sources with merely security and military applications are more strictly censored by the US state organizations. ‘Mind control’ and ‘silent sound technology’ are among such concepts beyond each of which lies more than half a century of private research and the relatively long history of each of them includes hundreds or even thousands of laboratory experiments or real experiences. The small amount of information we have gained about their applications raises a lot of questions. The present article is hoped to initiate further and more extensive research on such questions: Is there an unconventional approach at the operational level – and even tactical level – underway to control the behavior and influence the thoughts of the target groups in addition to what is going on as the conventional approach at the strategic level – and using media and propaganda mechanisms? The present article tackles this old and less known topic.