Journal of Cultural Guardianship of the Islamic
Year:2013 | Volume:2 | Issue:6|Papers Count:8

Social security is a fundamental issue in the life cycle of a society and various factors including soft war are involved in strengthening or weakening it. Social security is closely related to the corporate values of man in social life and soft war seeks to make the individuals and groups of the target community follow its objectives. Collective values are said to be the link between social security and soft war since they result in cohesion and harmony in a society, on the one hand, and reinforce social secunty, on the other, as they lead to the development of nonnative relations among individuals in various spheres of public life. In general, the establishment of corporate values leads to the reinforcement of norms and reduction of norms violation in a system or a society and social stability, balance and security are, accordingly, strengthened. In contrast, soft war causes disruption in the security system of a society through weakening the values and norms of a society.

Among the areas of soft dispute between the Islamic Republic and the hegemonic system is a new and complex phenomenon called "soft war" and the concepts associated with it. In contrast to those who think that soft war does not really exist, we believe that the Islamic Revolution is faced with a multilateral, profound and wide-ranging soft war which has to be examined from different angles. The fact is that the hegemonic system feels all that it has gained during the centuries is being endangered by a holy phenomenon called the Islamic Republic and they clearly know that all their covert and overt witchcraft will no longer work. In spite of this, they will not quit their attempts and will constantly carry on their full-fledged hostility using novel techniques and wearing new masks so that they may maintain their dominance over the world. However, the Islamic Revolution, whose manifestation is observed in the Islamic Republic of Iran, will not have its hands tied and, with its message, will attract the minds and hearts of people by persuasion, not by enticement, and will pave the way for the new world order and administration relying on the Islamic teachings and the Divine nature of humans. In this article, following a documentary and field study, analyzing library resources and offering his findings in the form of "the functional model of soft power" to a number of experts to be criticized, the author looks at the process of soft war formation from a different angle and adds some new concepts such as "legitimate and illegitimate soft power" and "soft deterrence" to the rich literature of the Islamic Revolution.

Some people believe that for the Mahdavia community to be established, some kind of metamorphosis needs to take place but others think this important phenomenon is the outcome of a natural process toward the appearance of Imam Mahdi. What seems to confirm the idea of the second group is that although some miraculous acts are likely to occur in the process of the establishment of the Mahdavia community, they will follow a natural direction and their causal factors will be natural as well. Therefore, on the one hand, the material civilization and the arrogance system should reach its peak, acquire the highest possible authority and fulfill its ultimate potential and, on the other hand, since the structure of this system is at odds with human nature, some kind of inconsistency between the natural requirements of man and this secular civilization should occur leading to a public dissatisfaction with the existing civilization. This natural course is what we see in the world today; that is, the arrogant civilization has reached its peak and, at the same time, a general dissatisfaction with its essence and current management is taking shape from inside the human community (and even in the cradle of this civilization). It seems that the recent Islamic awakening in the Middle East and North Africa, which has been influenced by the pattern of Iran's Islamic Revolution, is the reflection of this phenomenon in the Islamic world and, at the same time, naturally it lays the ground for the establishment of the global Mahdavia community. Analyzing the causes of the recent revolutions in the Islamic countries, this applied research work explores Islamic awakening and its role in the establishment of the global Mahdavia community.

The 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran has been the origin of massive changes in the social, political and cultural arenas. In fact, the occurrence of the Islamic Revolution in Iran made most analysts and experts following the socio-political developments within the modernistic framework start thinking. The Western experience of the post-Renaissance socio-political developments suggested the declining role of religion in shaping changes but what has been of significance for the political sociologists about the changes associated with the Islamic Revolution is the role of religion and Shiism in shaping the socio-political changes and practices. Meanwhile, the interaction between the Shiite clerics and political power in instigation and victory of the Islamic Revolution and in its aftermath, particularly the status that the Shiite clerics achieved in the political system of the country and the prominent role they played in establishing the Islamic Republic on the basis of velayat-e faqih in Iran following the victory of the Islamic Revolution and in overall steering and managing the country, is of great importance. This paper is aimed at verification of the claim that the Shiite leadership has always assumed a vital role in the course of the socio-political developments of the Iranian community, particularly in the social crisis following the 2009 elections and undoubtedly the divine and prophet-like leadership of the Supreme Leader eaused the people's epie victory in the 2009 sedition.

Today, what military experts consider in their analysis of battles and what determines their approach to war is the existing hardware elements utilized in confronting the enemy. According to this approach, every country has a definite hardware capacity and the battlefield decisions are made on the basis of a set of explicit and extrinsic national interests, predetermined preferences and logical procedures. Dealing with the Sacred Defense in terms of this approach blocks our analysis as, according to the realistic approach, a nation which does not have the same amount of hardware potential as its enemy has no option but to surrender. However, Iran managed to win the war although the Iraqi full-fledged assault was carried out by making use of international military capabilities. One of the genuine factors which facilitates our analysis of the Sacred Defense is to consider the potential of Islam and the leadership of the Islamic community to mobilize the people and attract their voluntary participation as the main pillar of defense known as manpower. Imam Khomeini (rah.), as the leader of the Islamic Revolution during the Imposed War, attempted to instill a new identity in Iranians by trying to bear resemblance to Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) in behavior and to form a new scope and geography in Islamic campaign which guaranteed people's presence in war fronts. He accomplished all this by making use of the existing potentials in Islamic teachings and generating a cultural discourse based on the genuine elements of the Islamic teachings such as the culture of Ashura, the Battle of Uhud, the Prophet and Ahlul Bayt's (a.s.) tolerance of hardships and difficulties in battles and the ethical elements and teachings of Islam. Following the example of Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) and trying to bear resemblance to them and their loyal followers in behavior during war time, Imam Khorneini (rah.) attempted to persuade the Iranian Muslims to attend the war fronts so that he could guide people by having them follow the genuine teachings of Islam and manage the war on the basis of this discourse. Representing the cultural clements utilized by Imam Khomeini (rah.) to create the resemblance-oriented cultural discourse, this paper seeks to explore the nature and role of this discourse in leading the battle arena.

Today, the significant role of culture in directing political, economic, military and social behaviors has caused culture power to be considered an important factor in social interactions and 111 the persistence and survival of cultures. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is not an exception to this rule and to persist and survive. it has to preserve its culture over time since this institution established under the order of the great leader of the Revolution and the culture governing it are among the auspicious products of the lslamic Revolution. Undoubtedly, the very causal factor that led to the rise of this mood and the great changes will also help the persistence and survival of this movement. The present paper is aimed at answering this basic question: What is the nature of culture power and how can the persistence and survival of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards' culture be guaranteed and the Revolutionary Guards be equipped with a full-fledged defense shield in different arenas? The analysis of the data suggest that this objective can be achieved by directing the cultural elements of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards' culture correctly and the threats in various areas can be tackled and a comprehensive defense shield can be furnished to defend the Islamic world by making use of the modern technological capabilities and updating the teachings of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards' culture.

Perhaps, justice is the most amazing issue among the supreme qualities and virtues ofImam Ali (a.s), the Commander of the Faithful. He did not neglect justice under any circumstances, neither in word and in the individual aspects of life nor in deed and in the social aspects of life and in administrative and managerial positions. Thus, it is imperative for a society seeking to establish its administrative foundations and social relations on the basis of religious principles and divine commands to explore the theoretical and practical aspects of justice in Imam Ali's (a.s) life since his wise teachings along with his practical life can be a praiseworthy, functional model for such a community. Hence, this paper attempts to deal with this issue using a descriptive-analytical and content analysis method. For this purpose, first, the theoretical aspects of this topic in the Holy Quran and from the Prophet's (p.b.u.h.) perspective are explored. Then, the various aspects of justice from the perspective of the Commander of the Faithful (a.s.) and in his practical life are discussed and, finally, an attempt is made to offer some practical implications.

The present paper is aimed at offering a model based on knowledge management to promote the Sacred Defense culture. In fact, the paper attempts to answer this question: On the basis of which knowledge management model can the Sacred Defense culture be promoted? To answer this question, the existing knowledge management literature was reviewed and four hypotheses with the independent variables of "Socialization, externalization, internalization and synthesization were developed. This research was carried out using the descriptive-survey method and its population included those who were familiar with both knowledge management and the Sacred Defense and its values. The subjects were selected on the basis the random cluster sampling method. The data was collected through a researcher-made questionnaire which included 24 items and the Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient of the questionnaire items was 0.86. The data was analyzed by one-tailed t-test and the main findings are as follows: the Nonaka and Takeuchi model is a desirable approach for the promotion of the Sacred Defense culture. According to this model, socialization hypothesis has the highest influence and the other hypotheses are internalization, synthesization and extemalization, respectively. The basic finding of the present study is that to promote the Sacred Defense culture, we need to create a sense of cooperation among individuals using social theories.