SOFT POWER STUDIES
Year:2011 | Volume:2 | Issue:5|Papers Count:7

Technology and the development of the communications tools, in spite of their advantages and benefits, have caused numerous concerns for countries all over the world; this necessitates adopting a legal attitude and imposing limitations on its employment. While in the past countries only regarded the application of weapons and military force as aggression, today cyber-war has caused great concern, and is regarded as a serious threat by all countries. One type of cyber-war, which has aroused grave concern and brought about widespread protest, is hostile propaganda. The present article specifically addresses the legal limitations of the measures of the media against the interests of other countries, generally referred to as hostile propaganda.

Soft war, or soft power, is applied to tools which exert influence and bring about changes without the employing violence or any form of weapons. This term was first used by Jane Sharp. Needless to say, this phenomenon has existed since the ancient times and the colonialist powers have realized its importance and have invested on its development. New changes in political systems, such as the development of elections, have revealed the importance of this phenomenon. This phenomenon first emerged after the Constitutional Revolution, and the present article aims to examine it in the political components of the Constitutional Movement. Some aspects of this phenomenon can be perceived in the political conduct, especially in elections. The formation of the soft war, which is sometimes influenced by foreign agents, can be traced in the policy-making of the Democratic Party. This article is an effort to shed light on these issues.

Islam is recognized as a major world religion. This religion has developed a lot of capital resources through its transcendental concepts - believers who are willing to sacrifice their lives to protect Islam. Although soft power seems to be a modern invention, a careful study of the history, reveals that the Revealed religions, especially Islam, have dealt with this issue, and discussed it in their instruction. Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be upon Him) and Imams (S), as unique individuals in the history have played a great part in highlighting soft power and made considerable effort to increase the power of Islam and Muslims. The present paper, based on Nye’s theory (a theoretician of soft power), seeks to extract and examine the components of soft power of Islam.

The present article aims to thoroughly examine the common cultural aspects and the acceptance of the principle of the Islamicization of universities, while highlighting the emphasis put by Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei on the importance and role of centers for higher education in strengthening the national-religious identity of university students. According Jenkins’ theory of identity, the environment and individuals are held up by the youth as models to follow for bringing about changes or strengthening their beliefs; and consequently the student highlight and interpret factors that influence their beliefs, in different manners. In fact, the effect of university on the students can be determined in a multi-faceted manner, on the basis of cultural and social background of the students. The methodology used in the present article is descriptive. As a part of the document study for this study, the works of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei were examined, and the findings were combined with the results of a survey of 300 university students. The results indicate that students regarded Hijab, editing text books on the basis of Islamic knowledge and worldview, establishing Islamic student councils, encouraging student to study the Iranian-Islamic identity, and holding meetings, among other things, as important factors for strengthening the Islamic beliefs of the students. The ideas of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei indicate that identification with and holding up pious professors as a model can act as an effective mechanism for strengthening the religious beliefs of the students.

Globalization and the spread of western values throughout the world have occurred through the media and the changes in lifestyles and consumption patterns. As a result, a value system has been formed which reflects the modern western ideals. The present article seeks to provide an answer to the main question of the article: what is the role of soft power of the US in the policy of globalization? Needles to say the softpower of the US is inspired by its culture, as it is the case with other countries’ soft power. In order to answer the question of article, it is presumed that the United States of America has been able to spread its own values to other parts of the world, using different cultural means. However, this trend has been severely criticized by other countries.

In today’s world the accelerated development of technology and tourism industry which imposes massive changes on different societies and the lives of people in the process of globalization, has changed the concept of geographical and political boundaries, and created the new concept of cultural boundaries. This concept mainly deals with the confrontation and interaction of cultures more than in the past. If the strategic management of the national culture is not equipped with tools such as cultural engineering in order to with possible opportunities and threats, the inefficient aspects of the native culture will be omitted and the useful, efficient elements of it will disappear as a result of the globalization of cultures. Therefore, in the cultural policy-making and planning, culture should be defined in a way that can be planned and evaluated. As an important component of culture, the identity of the individual and the society can contribute to the development of the human community or lead to its decline; this necessitates close attention to it in cultural engineering of the society. Because of its key role in developing new ideas, the higher education system, is of paramount importance in the cultural engineering. The present article seeks to define and explicate the concepts of culture and cultural engineering, and examine the necessity of these concepts and the cultural pathology in university as the origin of evolution.

In the era of communications and information revolution, countries which possess more communications and information tools and employ them more efficiently are more successful in achieving their foreign policy goals. United States and its Western allies, which have better communications and information facilities, take advantage of the favorable situation of today to gain civilizational and cultural dominance, and marginalize and eliminate their civilizational and cultural rivals. The West has launched a soft war against the Islamic world in general and the Islamic Republic of Iran in particular. In soft war, the superior cultural, civilizational, scientific and technological aspects are utilized to influence the ideas, thought and consequently the conduct of the enemy. The modern communications tools (satellite, internet, and the like) and complex psychological and sociological techniques are employed by one country, and both the strengths and weaknesses of the soft power of the enemy and oneself are examined in order to exert influence on the intellectual aspects of the enemy and turn its political, social and cultural conduct to one’s advantage. Consequently, a political current or favorable political system is brought to power so that the maximal interests of one country are secured The main questions addressed in this article are what is the nature of the soft war of the West against Iran? And what are its methods and tools? Our main hypothesis is that soft war is a complex intellectual and cultural movement through modern communications tools and it is made on the part of the West against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The methodology used in this research is analytical-descriptive, using the library means.