Conceptual Nature of Cultural Assault and Cultural NATO; Guidelines for Iran

Developments of the current century have put culture and its related elements among the most significant national and international issues and at present a lot of macro-cultural issues have been deeply linked with political subjects. The contemporary world has abandoned the old software-based approach and is currently following an approach which focuses on dominating the minds of the public and manipulating cultural elements. Accordingly, culture has found an important position in the field of security issues and is considered a significant factor in issues related to software aspects of power and soft war, and with regard to cultural NATO and cultural assault – an assault with violent and overthrowing nature though it appears to be soft, less costly and without life and property losses. Hence, understanding this phenomenon can positively contribute to security measures and policy development. One of the issues related to cultural assault is how to cope with it and cultural jihad is considered a necessity and obligation in this regard, particularly in societies where religious and national values are highly respected. Using a descriptive-analytic method, the present article attempts to look into the concepts of cultural assault and cultural NATO and ways of coping with them and, in particular, it introduces cultural jihad as an operational approach and confrontation strategy to be used to cope with the enemy’s cultural assault.