American Strategic Studies

American Strategic Studies

The New Paradigm of U.S. Presence in West Asia: From Classical Military Hegemony to Cognitive Hegemony and Networked Deterrence

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Seyed Abolhasan Firouzabadi 1
Abdul Hussein Kalantari 2
1 Ph.D. in Strategic Management, National Defense University, Tehran, Iran
2 Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
10.47176/asr.2026.1400
Abstract
The contemporary world, marked by the emergence of new domains of cognitive and virtual warfare and the changing nature of threats, has confronted the United States with a strategic challenge. The central question of this article is: What is the nature of the new architecture of U.S. dominance in West Asia, and how is the United States’ security strategy transitioning from a heavy physical presence toward more flexible, intelligent, and network-centric models? The theoretical framework is grounded in constructivism and the emerging dimensions of power in sociology. According to this approach, power is embedded not only in military instruments but also in the ability to define the rules of the game. The research adopts a qualitative methodology with a descriptive–analytical approach, drawing data from U.S. national security strategic documents, reports by defense research institutions, and recent scholarly sources. The findings indicate that the United States has transitioned from a War on Terror strategy toward a strategic reconfiguration focused on great-power competition. This transition has four consequences: a shift in the deterrence paradigm from a predominantly military approach toward integrated deterrence; the transformation of cognitive warfare and perception management through social media algorithms into a central pillar of contemporary confrontation; the redefinition of power on the basis of artificial intelligence and emerging instruments of warfare; and the exploitation of social polarization to weaken the power structures of rivals. Accordingly, Iran’s strategy for compelling the United States to withdraw, without an understanding of these strategic transformations, is bound to fail and requires a transition from a purely military balance toward a smart existential balancing approach.
Keywords
Hard Warfare
Soft Warfare
Networked Deterrence
Cognitive Governance
Remote Balancing
Smart Balancing
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American Strategic Studies
Volume 6, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
Serial number 22 - Summer 2026
Summer 2026
Pages 46-76

  • Receive Date 16 June 2026
  • Revise Date 14 August 2026
  • Accept Date 19 August 2026
  • Publish Date 23 July 2026