Five stages of confronting the enemy’s soft war

In a meeting with commanders and officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s armed forces, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution emphasized the continuous enhancement of maximum readiness and attention to both hardware and software preparedness, stating:

“Alongside hardware readiness, software readiness—namely, faith in one’s goals and mission and certainty in the righteousness of the path—is crucial, and there are hostile efforts to undermine it.”

Based on the insightful remarks of the wise Leader of the Revolution, the stages of software readiness to counter the enemy’s hybrid and cognitive warfare are as follows: Perception and Recognition, Strengthening and Deepening Ideological Foundations, Enhancing Soft Power and Effective Narrative-Building, Adopting a Soft War Formation, and Forming Coalitions with Aligned and Convergent Movements. Below, we examine each stage:

1. Perception and Recognition

Perception is a process aimed at becoming aware of the entirety of cognitive warfare and acknowledging its existence. The enemy’s primary effort in soft warfare is to deny the very occurrence of such aggression and its manifestations. At this stage, there is a pressing need for enhancing media literacy on one hand and clarification and enlightenment on the other. These efforts must be designed to guide public opinion toward understanding the existential and intrinsic nature of soft warfare and its dimensions, including hybrid and cognitive warfare. Raising enlightening issues and ensuring society’s mastery of the battlefield we face will achieve half of our objectives in neutralizing the enemy’s conspiracies. It must be noted that if the issues, concerns, and crises resulting from the enemy’s soft warfare—and beyond that, the nature and context in which it unfolds—are not accurately described, we will face either denial of the issue or indifference toward it. At this stage, understanding the nature of soft warfare, precise enemy identification, monitoring the enemy’s tactics, and raising public awareness must be prioritized.

2. Strengthening and Deepening Ideological Foundations

To strengthen and deepen ideological foundations in confronting the enemy’s soft warfare, we must consider the prerequisites for engaging in the soft war arena and its derivatives. These prerequisites, clearly and concisely, include strengthening Islamic-Iranian identity, promoting revolutionary values, and fostering hope for a bright future and trust in divine promises. Undoubtedly, it is impossible to reinforce and deepen society’s ideological foundations without attention to national and religious identity and reliance on values that serve as the cornerstone of the country’s cultural framework. The alignment of these three components guarantees our success at this stage. Achieving this requires creating targeted questions and concerns. We must analyze the trend the enemy has initiated in soft warfare, their current position, and their short-, medium-, and long-term objectives. This trend analysis must be focused, precise, and continuous. Foresight regarding the enemy’s threats and soft warfare also becomes relevant at this stage.

3. Enhancing Soft Power and Effective Narrative-Building

Equipping soft power capabilities and consistently countering the enemy’s operations in soft warfare follow principles and rules that must be adhered to with sensitivity. These rules are the prerequisites for engaging in soft warfare with the enemy. The four key requirements for enhancing soft power in cognitive and hybrid warfare are reforming the national image, developing and promoting a zero-narrative, providing continuous enlightening content, and producing the primary narrative. 

What protects public opinion from the initial impact of the enemy’s propaganda and psychological operations is immunity to their narrative-building through the creation of our own primary narrative. Numerous fabricated and distorted narratives have altered the battlefield’s foundation and structure to favor the enemy’s sinister goals by manipulating minds. Reforming the national image involves effectively leveraging the country’s unique assets in civilization, culture, religion, national identity, and history, and optimally utilizing both potential and actual capacities to counter the enemy’s soft warfare.

4. Adopting a Soft War Formation

In confronting our enemies in hard warfare, we recognized and adhered to the requirements of war, creating deterrence for Islamic Iran. Similarly, in the arena of the enemy’s soft warfare, we must adhere to its requirements to establish deterrence. Adopting a soft war formation involves developing a practical, forward-thinking, and documented roadmap to confront the enemy’s soft power and its components. In crafting this roadmap, safeguarding beliefs, enhancing collective identity in religious, national, and human dimensions, and synergizing in hybrid confrontations with the enemy must be prioritized. As mentioned in the previous stage, elevating the components of religious, national, and innate identity serves as an antidote and shield to neutralize the enemy’s dangerous objectives. A crucial rule to consider is that adopting a soft war formation signifies our transition from the stage of recognition and empowerment to offensive or defensive operations. The most important steps in this stage include equipping and strengthening cultural and media institutions, national division of labor, creating coordination and synergy, and mobilizing the system’s cultural front.

5. Forming Coalitions with Aligned and Convergent Movements

The final stage in confronting the enemy’s soft warfare is forming coalitions with aligned and convergent movements around the established roadmap. Continuous deterrence, creative engagement, and intelligent responses on an international scale are critically important at this final stage. Shared perceptual and operational understanding in this arena leads to collaboration and interaction between our country’s soft warfare actors and other potential and actual players in this shared battlefield. We must not overlook the potential of Iranians living abroad, Iran’s friends, and supporters of the Revolution in safeguarding our country’s boundaries, borders, and red lines. Instances of the enemy’s soft warfare against the Islamic world and independent, resistant nations like the Islamic Republic of Iran have persisted over decades, years, months, and even recent days. Therefore, forming coalitions with aligned and convergent movements based on the realities of this battlefield is essential.