The Role of the National Information Network in Facing the Cognitive-media War from Viewpoint of Imam Khamenei's Defense Thought

Cognitive war is a kind of soft war that is different from other types of war due to having features such as spatial dispersion, multiplicity of audience, depth of impact on perceptual-cognitive powers and the ability to create mental images in the individual and society. Communication technologies and media tools, especially the cyberspace, multiply the effects of this war. The anti-arrogant nature of the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the inability of the West to subvert it through military operations have caused the imposition of media cognitive war against the revolution, its ideals, and the Iranian people. Imam Khamenei's defense thought, as a comprehensive defense doctrine of the Islamic Republic, in the face of such an asymmetric war, requires active confrontation and design of a new arena for defense and fight, and the national information network is the same defense strategy. A phenomenon that, under the condition of mastery and independence, can fight against the enemy's media cognitive war and neutralize its effects. The role of the National Information Network in this situation is the goal that the present study pursues through descriptive-analytical method. The findings of the study suggest that the establishment of the national information network has effects in the national and transnational dimensions and leads to the change in the battle scene, the creation of a healthy context, national authority, media model, resistance information network and ultimately the failure of the media empire