The long game with Iran, technology as an instrument of culture.
Communications are at the heart of major paradigm changes in thought, government, culture, war, economics etc… the printing press invented news. It changed not only how people learned information, but also what people thought 'about', what they found important, how they thought about these news things and how they retain and recall info. It created mass propaganda and PR/advertising, spread consumerism across the world that ultimately drives the success of countries' economies. It ended feudalism.

Fast forward. People that run things know all of this. They know that this is their main instrument of spreading across the globe. Not "politics by other means" (aka: war), not politics, and not even culture. Ultimately religion.

"Winning" is a function of time alone, when you consider that game theory drives all of this and that only 2 things can close pandoras boxes on disruptive creations, cataclysm and tyranny. All you have to do is stay on top for long enough and the rest is accomplished organically. That is ALL modern military does. Keeps you on top long enough for the spread of "progress" to change people's belief systems such that they are amenable to your religious/cultural world view.

[skipping a long winded anecdote]

This change was not the result of anything nefarious in the traditional sense. Simply technology + time.

This is exactly the long game being utilized in Iran. Tech + time allows Iran to desire the type of change the west wants of it. At that point, regime change is either organic or justified and the barrier for entry drops significantly.

The only question is: are the Iranian people sufficiently ready at a cultural level for this transformation that the rest of the world has gone thru and is going thru? Are they ready to "self actualize" and become proud and willing individualists and cogs in the wheel of utopian progress?