Soft War and its Impact on Iranian Ethnic Groups

Demographic, linguistic and tribal heterogeneity has been one of the outstanding features of Iranian community during the centuries. Although the two features of being Muslim and Iranian have had such a desirability and cohesiveness that have mostly put Iranian ethnic groups under a single umbrella and Iranian ethnic groups have always lived in conformity with each other and the central political system, at some points during the contemporary history, it is observed that that the interference of enemies and superpowers has led to some ethnic crises in the country and turned ethnic convergence into divergence. The enemy’s involvement in creating crisis and ethnic conflict in Iran can be divided into hard and soft measures. In the field of hard measures, providing political, economic, military and logistics support for some Iranian ethnic groups, the enemy has sought to bring them into conflict with each other and the political system, so that they can put the political system under pressure and impose their illegal demands on it. However, in the field of soft measures, which have been observed especially after the Islamic Revolution, the enemy seeks to change the minds and hearts of the ethnic groups. Using various soft war methods, tools and tactics, especially in the context of media warfare, the enemy seeks to create an atmosphere of pessimism, despair, hopelessness and distrust toward the political system in the minds of Iranian ethnic groups, so that they can deprive the Islamic Revolution of the great social capital creating social gaps among Iranians. Reviewing the enemy’s soft war measures aimed at creating a gap between Iranian ethnic groups and the governance, this study offers suitable steps to deal with these measures.