A Single Roll of the Dice
Obama's Diplomacy with Iran
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- £12.99
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- £12.99
Publisher Description
Have the diplomatic efforts of the Obama administration toward Iran failed? Was the Bush administration's emphasis on military intervention, refusal to negotiate, and pursuit of regime change a better approach? How can the United States best address the ongoing turmoil in Tehran? This book provides a definitive and comprehensive analysis of the Obama administration's early diplomatic outreach to Iran and discusses the best way to move toward more positive relations between the two discordant states.
Trita Parsi, a Middle East foreign policy expert with extensive Capitol Hill and United Nations experience, interviewed 7 high-ranking officials from the U.S., Iran, Europe, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Brazil—including the top American and Iranian negotiators—for this book. Parsi uncovers the previously unknown story of American and Iranian negotiations during Obama's early years as president, the calculations behind the two nations' dealings, and the real reasons for their current stalemate. Contrary to prevailing opinion, Parsi contends that diplomacy has not been fully tried. For various reasons, Obama's diplomacy ended up being a single roll of the dice. It had to work either immediately—or not at all. Persistence and perseverance are keys to any negotiation. Neither Iran nor the U.S. had them in 29.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Middle East foreign policy expert Parsi (Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States) looks at the Obama administration's response from January 2009 to fall 2010 to Tehran's march toward nuclear weapons. The U.S. initially used a "hybrid" approach formulated by Dennis Ross, which combined diplomatic "engagement" with the threat of sanctions. According to Parsi, sanctions took the driver's seat due to Washington's pervasive mistrust of Iran, as well as pressure from hard-line Republicans and such allies as Israel, Saudi Arabia, and France. Parsi examines the negotiations toward a confidence-boosting "swap" in 2009 (1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, which could be upgraded for building a nuclear bomb, would be removed from Iran while enriched fuel rods, which could be used for peaceful purposes, would be returned a year later), which failed because of Iranian resistance. When Tehran agreed to essentially the same deal after a Brazilian-Turkish initiative a year later, it was the Obama administration that balked. In a superb epilogue, Parsi calls for a decoupling of diplomacy and the threat of sanctions, and for long-term, patient diplomacy on matters including human rights. Based on interviews with American, Iranian, Israeli, and other diplomats, and existing documents, this book is a must-read for all those interested in the relationship between Washington and Tehran.
