United States Foreign Policy Failures Toward Revolutionary Iran: Miscalculating Tehran's Power Projection and Ignoring the National Character of the Iranian People
Abstract
The challenges that Iran poses are, arguably, some of the most significant foreign policy issues leading Washington's agendas today. Iran's power projection and regional ambitions, according to many American politicians and social scientists, defy the U.S. and its allies in the region. However, more than three decades of U.S. foreign policies towards Iran, including economic sanctions, political pressure and intimidation have neither altered the Islamic authority's aggressive diplomacy nor achieved regime change; instead, these foreign policy choices-by arousing nationalist sentiment and revealing a collective sense of discontent toward American policies among many Iranians-have actually facilitated hardliners in gaining public support. In this context, this thesis, by assessing the lessons learned from previous U.S. strategies, their successes and failures, and by considering the unintentional consequences, many of which caused a backlash among the Iranian people, as well as by examining the political and social climate that exists in Iran today, looks for a sustainable, viable and ultimately successful resolution within the Iranian society.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA536313
Entities
People
- Omur Oz
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School