JOURNAL OF DEFENSE POLICY
Year:2014 | Volume:22 | Issue:3 (87)|Papers Count:7

Iran 20-year outlook document has many security parameters from whose context the dimensions of security in political, economic, military, scientific, social, health care, environmental and cultural domains can be drawn out and explained. For this purpose, the article seeks to scope out the cultural security in the outlook document, and to scrutinize the parameters of a culturally secure society, the threats against cultural security and the courses of action for attaining security as worked out in the IRI 20-year outlook document. The methods of documentary-library studies will be used in order to achieve the intended objectives, with the method of answering the questions being attributional analysis. The findings of this research indicate that achieving the delineated objectives in the outlook document require the establishment of a culturally secure society that is capable of being recognized with parameters such as “ethical society”, “ethical standards and Islamic values”, “development consistent with cultural contingencies” and other cultural parameters. Based on the parameters contained in the outlook document, cultural security could face threats at three levels, namely human, national and strategic. For this reason, considering the parameters of providing cultural security is necessary that include giving inspiration, deepening social justice, establishing a secure and ethical society, consolidating the Islamic and revolutionary identity, relying on Islamic values, consolidating the social compatibility, protecting the lawful freedoms, total deterrence and well-planned and well-thought-out collective efforts. The structure of this article includes a conceptual examination of security and cultural security in Chapter 1 and a study of cultural security in the Outlook Document, as well as the threats against the cultural security and the means of attaining cultural security in the 20-year Outlook Document in the next chapter.

Throughout the history, defense has invariably been an important part of the human life, for the defense actions taken by humans counteracts or decreases the effects of the invasions. However, how defense takes place hinges on a variety of circumstances, for humans have tried in their lives to choose and leverage the best means of defense in different conditions against their invading adversaries by using rationality and well-thought measures. As societies developed, many differences have occurred in weapons, and similarly in defense related ways and means. Similarly, war and defense have gone beyond their military concept some examples of which are cultural and cyber warfare. This article seeks to describe the concepts of economic defense and war using a conceptual development of war and defense, and to provide a theoretical and analytical framework to make resistive economy operational based on a qualitative research and logical analysis of the concepts. Finally, aiming to answer the main question about what resistive economy means conceptually, it seeks to support the hypothesis stating that resistive economy is realistically a strategy of passive economic warfare in a military paradigm. The results of this research is an operational model which has been designed based on economic warfare and passive economic defence for operationalizing the resistive economy.

The present article is aimed at designing and explaining the IGRC’s model of strategic decision making in the Holy Defense as an important era in the IGRC’s commanding and managing process. In order for this to take place, it began to study the research literature and that of the Holy defense using an exploratory, retrospective and applied methods. In this research, the IGRC’s model of strategic decision making includes 5 dimensions, 18 parameters and 46 indicators all of which were categorized and prioritized based on the theoretical fundamentals of the research that supported all the hypotheses of this model. Therefore, the dimensions of the IGRC commanders’ model of decision making- within the order of their importance and contribution to measuring this model- are as follows: the potential of decision making, the decision making process, the decision maker, the nature of decision making and the decision making environment. According to the results of the measurement model, the relationship between variables and factors are robust. It means that the variables involved in measuring the relevant factors have an internal reliability and validity. It follows that the designed model is compatible with the features of the IGRC commanders’ strategic decision making in the Holy Defense, and that it will be a reliable model for implementing.

It is critically important to pay attention to management and manufacturing as models formulated by Islamic and revolutionary teachings in the Islamic Revolutionary’s front increasingly threatened by a plot from the malicious front. Based on the statements made by the Supreme Leader in the area of Jihad and jihadi management and drawing on the Koranic verses and the managerial experiences of the author, this article presents a model of the practical shaping of Jihadi management based on cyclical model comprising three stages- be’that (appointment), Jihad and entering- by using analytical-descriptive methodology and discourse analysis. Each of these three stages covers steps without which that stage doesn’t take place completely, just as each stage will not lead into next stage unless it reaches a level of maturity. Of course, the exit of the last stage is the entrance way of the first stage which make it mature at a higher level. So, this movement is continued as a spring-like cycle in the entire life of an individual and society which is based on divine teachings.

This research addresses the relationship between media and policy in general, and between media and foreign policy in particular. The main argument is centered on the relationship between America’s foreign policy after September 11 attacks, examining the way global news media approached these attacks and the events following them. The main question is “how did the global media provide the mental background for America’s intervention in the Middle East?” To answer this question, the hypostasis of this research is that “the performances of the global news media paved the way for the global public opinion on America’s direct intervention in the Middle East”. To test this hypothesis, three international media including CNN, BBC Persian, and New York Times were selected as case studies; then the news published by these media were analyzed in four time junctures using quantitative content analysis. On this basis, to conclude the research one can state that there is a meaningful relationship between the performances of global news media and America’s foreign policy after the 11 September Event in the Middle East.

This research examines the decision making in the Zionist regime’s foreign policy. There are various factors that contribute to how decisions are shaped in the Zionist regime’s foreign policy in that decision making in its foreign policy doesn’t originate from one single factor, but there is a mix of factors that give shape to the foreign policy of this country. For this purpose, James Rosenau's Coherence Model was used as a theoretical framework in this research. This model is grouping the decision making process in foreign policy within five categories: namely foreign (international) environment; social factors in the Zionist regime; the governmental establishments; the roles adopted by the policy makers; and the personal characteristics inherent in the foreign policy making elites. The results showed that each of the five factors mentioned above play an important role in the Zionist regime’s foreign policy decision making in different degrees.

In the process of how countries’ foreign policy is shaped, a specific model of decision making becomes predominant considering the type of governmental structure, the economic-social system and the cultural features pertaining to that political unit. In reality, the model of decision making forms an important part of a state’s foreign policy which is formulated and carried out within a particular systemic framework. Therefore, studying just three cases of America’s military interventions, the present article tries to enumerate the internal and external sources of decision making in America’s military interventions, and then establish the priority of each of the sources. It follows that the main question in the research at hand is “under what circumstances is the probability of military intervention in America’s foreign policy increased”? To answer this question, the research hypothesis is that “under circumstances where the structure of international system (foreign variable) is conducive and the president himself agrees with military invasion, the military intervention in foreign policy becomes more likely”. From the viewpoint of James Rosenau, the role variables have the most and individuals have the least part in America’s process of foreign policy decision making. However, as the findings of this research show, the priority and position of the variables that give shape to America’s foreign policy in wartime are different than in peacetime. The importance and sensitivity of decision making in critical times causes personal and variables in America’s military decision making to have priority on governmental and social variables.