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Iran Is Not the Problem - Our Misreading of Iran Is

Fifty Years of Policies Built on the Hope of Moderation

Lev Neymotin

From the essay

The reflections presented here grew out of a conversation with a friend about Western policy toward Iran. The deeper disagreement concerned the nature of the Iranian regime itself and the assumptions that Western policy has repeatedly made about it. Are these policies dealing with a difficult but ultimately conventional state actor, or are they confronting a revolutionary ideological regime? Effective policy cannot be built on the Iran that policymakers hope will eventually exist. It must begin with the Iran that has existed for nearly fifty years. True deterrence occurs not when attacks are intercepted, but when adversaries decide not to attack at all.

Adapted from PDF pages 1, 2, 5.

Irandeterrencediplomacystrategic assumptions

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