The United States and Iran: Potential Friends or Contining Enemies

Abstract

In the past three decades, one country has stood out more than any other in opposing the United States? efforts in the Middle East: Iran. To counter Iranian influences in the Middle East, the United States has adopted a stance of containment towards Iran, which is similar in nature to what the United States did in containing the Soviet Union during the Cold War. For all of the effort towards isolating Iran and preventing it from influencing the region, the containment strategy is flawed. If containment is flawed, then what is the right strategy with Iran? To neutralize this growing threat from a Radical Islamic Iran, the United States, the West, and Sunni dominated countries of the Persian Gulf region need to end the strategy of containment. Instead, they need to work together and use the favorable aspects of Globalization along with the Elements of National Power, i.e. DIME to force a favorable change to Iran's aspirations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 21, 2009
Accession Number
ADA506228

Entities

People

  • John B. Van Hook

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Economic Sanctions
  • Foreign Relations
  • Globalization
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Law
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Middle East
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Nuclear Energy
  • Recreation
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • Treaties
  • United States
  • Ussr

Readers

  • Nuclear Non-Proliferation and International Security
  • Strategic Security Studies