Identification and Prioritization of Soft Acquirable Technologies in the Organizations of Armed Forces in Managing the Arba'in Procession: A Case Study of The Islamic Republic of Iran Army

The soft technologies encompass capacities such as leveraging verses and narratives, culture, values, rituals, and more to influence the components like the spirit, psyche, mind, and others within individuals. The ritual of the Arbaeen March is considered a soft technology, as highlighted in the statements made by the Supreme Leader as a destiny-shaping technology within this domain. This research focuses on identifying and prioritizing acquirable soft technologies derived from the Arbaeen pilgrimage ritual for defense organizations, with a specific emphasis on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army. Soft technologies, classified based on their applications and drawn from historical contexts, have been subjected to exploration to elucidate the potential acquirable capabilities of soft technology derived from the Arbaeen March. The objective is to enhance the defense capabilities of  the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army. By conducting a survey among experts in this field, acquirable soft technologies and prioritization criteria for these technologies have been encoded. A questionnaire, structured based on multi-criteria decision-making techniques (pairwise comparisons in the analytic network process and TOPSIS), was designed and presented to these experts. Taking into consideration the data obtained from the completed questionnaires by experts and stakeholders involved in the Arbaeen pilgrimage, the priority and importance of each dimension of soft technologies that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army should address have been determined. The results indicate that the primary acquirable benefits of strategic agility (آجا) from the Arbaeen pilgrimage ritual are expressed through: 1) Technologies of religion and life, 2) Cultural and social technologies, and 3) Military and Security Technologies. Intriguing analyses and noteworthy results have been derived in this regard, offering valuable insights that can serve as a guiding framework for defense organizations.