Taking on Tehran: Strategies for Confronting the Islamic Republic [Paperback]

Ilan Berman (Editor), Tom Ridge (Foreword), Stephen J. Blank (Contributor), The Honorable Sam Brownback (Contributor), Bijan R. Kian (Contributor), Robert L., Jr. Pfaltzgraff (Contributor), The Honorable Thomas J. Ridge (Contributor), James S. Robbins (Contributor), Robert L. Schadler (Contributor), RADM John F. Sigler USN (Contributor), John Wobensmith (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 074255807X | ISBN-13: 978-0742558076 | Publication Date: March 29, 2007

Taking on Tehran provides concrete solutions to the emerging Iranian global threat. The aggressive policy recommendations call for a multidimensional confrontation and containment of Iran with a proactive move toward regime change. The book offers practical, achievable guidance to policy makers and unique insight for students into how foreign policy is really made.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ilan Berman is one of the rising stars of American foreign policy. As vice president for policy of the Washington-based American Foreign Policy Council, he is a frequent guest on radio and television. An expert on regional security in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Russian Federation, he has consulted for both the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense, and provided assistance on foreign policy and national security issues to a range of governmental agencies and congressional offices. His writings on international security and American foreign policy have appeared in such influential publications as The National Interest, the International Herald Tribune, and the Financial Times, among others. Berman is adjunct professor for International Law and Global Security at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He also serves as a member of the reconstituted Committee on the Present Danger, and as Editor of the Journal of International Security Affairs. He is also the coeditor (with J. Michael Waller) of Dismantling Tyranny: Transitioning Beyond Totalitarian Regimes (2006) and the author of Tehran Rising (2005).

Product Details

• Paperback: 118 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (March 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074255807X
• ISBN-13: 978-0742558076
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,781,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Much Paralysis, July 29, 2008

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This review is from: Taking on Tehran: Strategies for Confronting the Islamic Republic (Paperback)

As Patrick Clawson wrote in the Middle East Quarterly, with the aim of stretching our imaginations about the steps the United States could take to counter the threats from Iran, Berman of the American Foreign Policy Council has assembled essays, mostly by conservative authors, on exploiting economic vulnerabilities (Berman), activating human rights concerns about Iran (Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.), reaching out to ordinary Iranians (Robert Schadler, Bijan Kian, and Berman), relying on deterrence despite the many dangers that would represent (James Robbins), working with allies who will not do much (Stephen Blank), planning for conflict (John Sigler), countering further proliferation if Iran goes nuclear (Robert Pfaltzgraff, Jr.), and acquiring better intelligence (John Wobensmith).

Several authors emphasize that the United States faces hard choices about Iran. Unfortunately, the essays are weakest at explaining what those hard choices might be. In particular, the authors do not spell out the implications of Iran's multifaceted challenge to U.S. interests; indeed, they rarely discuss Iran's support for the insurgency in Iraq, the hundreds of millions of dollars it spends each year arming those fighting to wipe out Israel (especially, but not limited to, Hamas and Hezbollah), and its subversion of Persian Gulf monarchies. They barely confront the difficult issue of whether U.S. interests would be well served by a deal ending Iran's nuclear program if it left untouched all the other Iranian threats to regional peace, especially if that deal also was seen by ordinary Iranians as abandoning their hopes for a democratic, secular regime. At the very least, the authors could have given the readers some guidance about how to think through these trade-offs.

The authors present many ideas about how to pressure Iran. Unfortunately, the narrative generally stops there without consideration of what would happen next. Several of the measures discussed could trigger Iranian reactions that would be a real challenge for U.S. interests. For example, if the United States impeded Iranian oil exports, Iran might choose to harass shipping in the Persian Gulf. And even if Iran did nothing, the decreased Iranian oil exports would drive up world oil prices, enrich several unfriendly powers (Russia and Venezuela come to mind), and burden U.S. consumers.

The problem of how to apply pressure on Iran is not so much the lack of imagination that is the authors' favorite complaint. More important is an overly cautious stance borne of an awareness that each measure could create new problems. The way to counter such policy paralysis is to show how to think through the action-reaction process. And on that point, this volume is not particularly strong.