cyber space and the future of national identity: Strategic warnings for national security in Causal Layered Analysis Apparoach

The present study aims to clarify the indices of Iranian national identity as well as the indices in contrast with them in order to define the big picture of Iranian future national identity from the surface level to the deepest levels.

Having conducted interview and coding and using them as the input for causal layered analysis, the present study seeks to describe the reasons and factors of cyber security threats for national Identity of Islamic Republic of Iran from surface to deep layers.

Iranians’ national identity has been threatened in different layers. Although that threat is to some degree caused by weak political and economic systems, the west taking advantage of its soft power against Iran has strengthened that threat at the level of worldview and metaphor leading the users to contempt their country and underestimating its success and development as well as believing whatever content produced and released by the west.

Iranian national identity in cyberspace is presented by 11 defining indices and 15 contradictory indices. The contradictory ones in systems layer outnumber the defining ones which means critical attention when formulating strategies to strengthen Iranian national identity in cyberspace.