Nournews: The formation of the Defense Council, undertaken with the foresight of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Commander-in-Chief following the 12-day war, should not be interpreted as a short-term reaction to a limited military confrontation. Rather than an emotional response to a temporary crisis, this decision reflects a deep understanding of the fundamental changes in the scale, nature, and logic of threats facing the Islamic Republic of Iran—threats that have emerged within a transitional international order; an order that is gradually distancing itself from legal norms and relying more than ever on the logic of raw power and hard instruments. In such an environment, deterrence is not an optional choice but a prerequisite for survival and national security.
Developments over the past two decades—from Ukraine and Gaza to the direct attacks by the United States and the Zionist regime on Iranian territory in 2025—clearly demonstrate that the political and legal costs of resorting to force have significantly declined. The ineffectiveness of the UN Security Council, the erosion of the credibility of international institutions, and the intensification of arms races all point to the return of hard-power logic to the center of global decision-making—a reality that, if ignored, can impose heavy strategic costs on any country.
Within this framework, the 12-day war should be viewed as a “strategic wake-up call”—an event that revealed future threats will not be merely conventional, but a combination of precision strikes, intelligence operations, cyber warfare, cognitive warfare, and multilayered pressure. Confronting such a complex threat pattern requires structural decisions that go beyond fragmented, ad hoc responses. It is precisely here that the importance of establishing the Defense Council becomes evident: an institution designed to create strategic coordination, remedy decision-making gaps, and generate synergy among the country’s defensive, security, and strategic capacities.
Among the most significant achievements of the Defense Council are the acceleration of efforts to rebuild and enhance the country’s defensive capabilities by relying on existing capacities, and the redefinition of certain overarching priorities. Alignment among responsible institutions, recalibration of defense capability development programs, and cohesion in decision-making enabled Iran, in a short period of time, to send a clear message of restored deterrence—a message whose impact is observable in the behavior and calculations of the opposing side, pushing threat dynamics into a more complex phase.
Alongside these developments, one fundamental necessity has become increasingly apparent: the need to design a targeted, precise, and intelligent mechanism for strategic communication. At a time when narrative warfare and psychological operations have become integral components of modern conflicts, the calibrated and controlled transmission of strategic achievements constitutes a part of deterrence itself. Effective deterrence is not solely the product of hard power; it also requires persuading public opinion, strengthening social cohesion, and consolidating public trust in the system’s capacity to ensure national security.
Ultimately, the establishment of the Defense Council should be regarded as a necessary step toward adapting Iran’s national security structure to the realities of the new global order—an order in which soft power remains one of the main pillars of Iran’s strength, yet without the intelligent reinforcement of hard components and effective narrative management, the sustainability of deterrence will face serious challenges. The Council’s ultimate effectiveness depends on forging a precise linkage among hard power, active diplomacy, and public opinion management—a linkage that can sustainably safeguard Iran’s national security against emerging threats.
NOURNEWS