Which Path to Persia?: Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran
ISBN: 9780815703792
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Brookings Institution Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: United States -- Foreign relations -- Iran; Iran -- Foreign relations -- United States;

Pollack (A Path Out of the Desert), research director for the Saban Center, collaborates with five colleagues for this timely and cogent analysis of U.S.-Iranian relations. Dismissing past U.S. policy as "not particularly impressive," the authors point to "an emerging consensus... that the Obama administration will have to adopt a new policy toward Iran." To that end, they identify nine approaches ranging from diplomacy to military action and containment ("the default U.S. policy toward Iran since the Islamic Revolution") and lay out the objectives, costs, pros and cons for each. Avoiding advocacy, the authors lament that all the alternatives are "unpalatable" and "no course is unambiguously better" than the others. They further acknowledge that Iran's nuclear ambitions represent an "existential threat" to Israel and that Israel remains a "wild card" in any consideration of Iranian policy. U.S.-Iranian relations have long been a minefield, and Pollack and his collaborators carefully identify the potential missteps facing policymakers in this valuable-if wonky-primer. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kenneth M. Pollack is director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. His books include A Path out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East (Random House). Daniel L. Byman is a senior fellow at the Saban Center, director of the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, and author of The Five Front War: The Better Way to Fight Global Jihad (Wiley). Martin Indyk is director of the Saban Center, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, and the author of Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East (Simon & Schuster). Suzanne Maloney is a senior fellow at the Saban Center. She has worked on the State Department's Policy Planning Staff where she provided analysis of Middle East issues. Michael E. O'Hanlon is a senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at Brookings and author of Budgeting for Hard Power (Brookings).Saban Center Senior Fellow Bruce Riedel served as chairman of President Obama's Strategic Review of U.S. Policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan and is the author of The Search for al Qaeda (Brookings).

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