The Role of Modern Diplomacy in the United States’ Hybrid War Against the Islamic Republic of Iran (2015–2023)

Abstract

Over the past four decades, the United States has continuously sought to change the behavior or the governing system of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In recent years, theorists have introduced a new type of conflict known as hybrid warfare, which has become the core strategic approach of the United States toward various countries, including Iran. One of the key instruments of this war is modern diplomacy, through which the United States advances its policies toward Iran using various methods such as public, military, coercive, track-two, economic, media, and cyber diplomacy. The central question of this study is: what are the roles, applications, and impacts of the components of modern diplomacy in the U.S. hybrid war against Iran? The hypothesis of this research posits that modern diplomacy, as one of the main tools of the U.S. hybrid warfare against Iran, plays a significant role in achieving the United States’ strategic objectives. This diplomacy seeks to influence public opinion, governments, and international organizations through diverse mechanisms in order to secure U.S. interests. The research adopts a descriptive-explanatory method, and the findings indicate that the United States has utilized instruments such as public diplomacy through institutions like the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and advisory councils, track-two diplomacy with three approaches—conciliation, deterrence, and war—military diplomacy, coercive diplomacy, and cyber diplomacy through platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. These results demonstrate that the U.S. approach in hybrid warfare represents a combination of hard, semi-hard, and soft instruments within the framework of diplomacy.