Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Instructor, Department of Political Science, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran
2
Assistant Professor of Public International Law, Department of Law, Faculty of Humanities, Bo Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran
3
Assistant Professor of Education at Payam Noor University؛iran
10.22034/sm.2025.2010463.2116
Abstract
In recent decades, geopolitical and ideological developments in West Asia have paved the way for the emergence of transnational resistance networks that have emerged in response to foreign domination and the ineffectiveness of dependent states. Through discourse, values, and spiritual legitimacy, this revolution has created a cooperative and trans-state network of regional resistance forces, providing common identity and cultural grounds among groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansarullah in Yemen, and other resistance actors, leading to strategic synergy and narrative coherence among them. The present study uses the method of discourse analysis and a comparative approach by posing the question, “How has the soft power of the Islamic Revolution of Iran affected the trans-state synergy and convergence of resistance forces in West Asia?” In the theoretical dimension, the article combines three conceptual frameworks—soft power (Nye), critical discourse analysis (Fairclough and Van Dijk), and narrative theory in foreign policy (Krebs and Friedman)—to present a hybrid model through which the process of expanding the discourse of the Islamic Revolution among the resistance’s supra-state forces can be analyzed. In this framework, “soft power” refers to the persuasive power and discursive appeal of the Islamic Revolution, “discourse analysis” refers to the mechanisms of semantic reproduction of the concepts of resistance and anti-arrogance, and “narrative theory” examines the narrative coherence, mythmaking, and creation of legitimizing narratives among the resistance forces. The main hypothesis of the research is that wherever there is identity, value, and narrative overlap between the Islamic Revolution and the resistance forces, the possibility of forming supra-state convergence and increasing the coordination capacity of the resistance front has been provided. The importance of this study lies in the fact that, unlike previous studies that have often analyzed the soft power capacities of the Islamic Revolution or resistance groups separately, this study, with a comparative and network perspective, explores the transnational pattern of synergy between resistance actors in relation to the discourse of the Islamic Revolution. The case study of the article shows that Hezbollah in Lebanon has become a structural and internalized model of the discourse of the Islamic Revolution in all institutional, discursive, ritual, and media dimensions and has achieved a kind of supra-state institutionalization and resistance state-building. In contrast, Ansarullah Yemen, although it has more independence at the structural level, has a meaningful overlap with the discourse of the Islamic Revolution in the discursive, slogan, and symbolic layers and is moving towards the institutionalization of this semantic link. In both cases, narratives such as oppression, anti-arrogance, martyrdom, and unity of the Islamic nation have been reproduced in the form of rituals, media, education, and patterns of public mobilization. The key finding of the research is that the narrative, identity, and value overlap between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the resistance forces has played a fundamental role in the formation of “trans-state synergy,” in such a way that the Islamic Republic has become not just a domestic state but also a transnational discursive authority at the regional level.
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