TEHRAN - The resilience of the Iranian nation, particularly in moments of severe crisis such as the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war on the ancient country, cannot be adequately understood through conventional political or military frameworks alone.

Rather, it must be examined through the deeper lens of culture, identity, and civilizational continuity, forces that have shaped Iran’s historical trajectory for millennia and continue to define its collective response to external pressures.

In a recent note, Seyyed Reza Salehi-Amiri, Iran’s Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, articulates this perspective with striking clarity. “Civilizations that are founded on culture, meaning, and identity,” he writes, “possess enduring vitality, while those that rely on war and destruction are ultimately destined to decline and surrender.” 

This statement is not merely rhetorical; it encapsulates a philosophy of history deeply embedded in the Iranian worldview--one that sees cultural continuity as the ultimate guarantor of national survival.

In the evolving geometry of contemporary conflicts, Salehi-Amiri argues, wars are no longer confined to disputes over territory or material interests. Increasingly, they penetrate deeper layers of human existence, targeting “memory,” “identity,” and “civilization” itself. Within this framework, the recent damage inflicted on 114 cultural heritage sites across Iran, mainly by shockwaves, must be understood not as incidental collateral damage, but as part of a broader strategy aimed at Iran’s cultural memory. 

More than 40 of these damages sites are located in Tehran, including the historic Golestan Palace, a UNESCO-listed complex that stands as a symbol of Iran’s architectural and historical legacy.

Such acts, Salehi-Amiri suggests, point to the emergence of what can be described as a “civilizational war”, a form of conflict that extends beyond military, nuclear, or missile dimensions. Its objective is more profound: to sever the connection between Iran’s cultural heritage and its contemporary identity, thereby weakening the foundations of its civilizational continuity. “What we are witnessing,” he notes, “is an assault on the cultural memory of this land.”

Yet, embedded within this moment of crisis is a powerful and symbolic coincidence. The attacks have occurred in temporal proximity to Nowruz, the Persian New Year, one of the oldest continuously celebrated cultural traditions in human history. This convergence is not merely incidental; it opens the door to a deeper theoretical reflection on the relationship between institutions that generate social cohesion and the resilience of civilizations.

Nowruz, in Salehi-Amiri’s remarks, functions as a “self-generating institution”, a cultural phenomenon that renews itself from within and ensures the continuity of a nation’s life across time. 

In the Iranian intellectual tradition, culture is not reducible to physical structures, architectural forms, or material artifacts. While monuments such as Golestan Palace or ancient archaeological sites hold immense symbolic value, they represent only one dimension of a much broader cultural system. Culture, in this sense, encompasses identity, personality, collective memory, and the historical lineage of a people. It is continuously reproduced through language, customs, social practices, and shared narratives.

This broader system is what social scientists often describe as “civilizational power”--a form of power that operates beyond the visible metrics of military strength or economic capacity. In times of crisis, civilizational power assumes a multidimensional role, becoming the primary mechanism through which social cohesion and resilience are regenerated. As Salehi-Amiri observes, both in the recent conflict and in earlier periods of tension, it is precisely this form of power that has manifested itself most clearly.

In contrast, Iran’s adversaries, he argues, often lack a nuanced understanding of the distinction between hard power and soft power. Their analytical frameworks tend to prioritize military, security, and political factors, overlooking the deeper layers of cultural and historical influence. “In a civilizational system such as Iran,” Salehi-Amiri notes, “power resides at a deeper level--in the fabric of history, culture, and identity.”

The Iranian individual, in this context, exists within what can be described as a “civilizational horizon”—a conceptual space in which Iran is perceived not merely as a geographic territory but as a meaningful whole. This whole is composed of a complex network of symbols, narratives, and historical experiences that generate a sense of awareness, pride, and civilizational strength. It is this awareness that forms the foundation of national resilience.

Within Salehi-Amiri’s analytical framework, two enduring pillars, “Iran” and “Islam”, have played a central role in shaping the country’s identity. Over centuries, these elements have interacted in a mutually reinforcing process, producing a cultural model that is simultaneously rooted, dynamic, and capable of renewal. In the face of external threats, this model does not weaken; rather, it generates new forms of solidarity and cohesion.

At its deepest level, the current confrontation can thus be understood as a clash with a “living civilizational tradition”, a tradition that stretches from the ancient settlements of Shahr-e Sukhteh and Jiroft, through various eras of the Achaemenids and Sassanids, and into the Safavid period and modern Iran. This historical continuity has produced a form of cultural hegemony based not on coercion, but on consensus, meaning, and identity.

“Iran has repeatedly encountered devastating waves in its history,” Salehi-Amiri writes, “but each time, it has passed through them, reconstituting itself in new forms of cultural and civilizational life.” This pattern of renewal is not accidental; it is the product of a long-standing strategy of “cultural resistance,” cultivated over centuries.

Today, this cultural resilience serves not only as a source of national strength but also as a potential model for other societies grappling with similar challenges. However, Salehi-Amiri cautions that this vast cultural capital must be actively preserved and reinterpreted, particularly for younger generations. 

AM