Paired with calls for cultural independence, expressions of fear about a cultural onslaught from “the West” have formed the bedrock of official post-revolutionary discourses in Iran, with the state variously attempting to deploy the media at its disposal in order to forestall perceived external threats and to promote a political culture in tune with the revolution’s ideals. Despite the state’s direct control over broadcasting services and its means of regulating and restricting other forms of media, the highly splintered and contentious nature of Iranian politics has been a continual obstacle for attempts at monopolizing media messages. The advent of new technologies--from satellite to the Internet--has similarly undermined such efforts, causing great concern within the ruling system. At the same time, the ruling establishment and its supporters recognize the potentials of new technologies for furthering their agendas and have actively engaged them as they emerge. The tensions between the anxieties and excitement about new media have long reflected themselves in the state’s contradictory stances towards the media, with the factionalized nature of power struggles only exacerbating the inconsistencies in its approach to media technologies. The rise of discourses and outlets for the practice of “soft war” that have intensified in the wake of the fallout from Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election provide particularly fertile ground for examining the complex interplay among media, state power, and the blurring of boundaries between foreign and internal enemies in the battle to influence Iran’s political culture. Often explicitly referencing western proponents and instruments of “soft power” while insisting on the distinctiveness of Iranian “soft war,” discourses on the latter betray an uneasy relationship to concepts and media which are hatched in ostensibly enemy territory but which are being re-purposed with the goal of safeguarding the ideology of the ruling system. This paper will uncover the contradictory dynamics behind the newly celebrated tactic of soft war through a focus on several sites designated for its cultivation, and will conclude with highlighting the importance of examining the soft war phenomenon for what it reveals about the identity crisis faced by the Iranian state.