Purpose: A one-day international symposium hosted by the Marine Corps University (MCU) and the Marine Corps University Foundation to enhance the overall understanding of Iran, exploring its internal dynamics, regional perspectives, and extra-regional factors and examining its near-term political and strategic options and their potential impact on the course of action of the United States and the USMC.
This book contains the collected work from "The Iranian Puzzle Piece: Understanding Iran in the Global Context." This one-day international symposium, held at Marine Corps University (MCU), was cohosted by MCU and the Marine Corps University Foundation and was coordinated by the Marine Corps University's Middle East Studies (MES) that was established in 2007. The symposium from which these essays originated offered a forum to enhance the overall understanding of Iran, exploring its internal dynamics, regional perspectives, and extra-regional factors and examining its near-term political and strategic options and their potential impact on the United States and the Marine Corps. This event joined together colleagues from the Armed Services, joint, interagency, coalition partners, and security communities and explored various perspectives to help develop an understanding of the role played by the Islamic Republic of Iran in the global community.
Contains the collected work from a one-day international symposium, held at Marine Corps Univ. It sought to clarify the waters -- to examine the "puzzle piece" labeled Iran and understand how it fits into the larger, global puzzle. These papers came out of that symposium; they provide insight into the multifaceted nature of Iran and its regime. Contents: Introduction; Iran Under Ahmadinejad; Talking to Tehran: With Whom, About What, and How?; When U.S.-Iranian Negotiations Start: A Primer; The Iranian Nuclear Issue; Iran's Policies and Iraq; Iran in the Israeli Threat Perception; The 2009 Iranian Presidential Election and Its Implications. Glossary. Map and diagram of Iranian Power Structure.
In his highly influential book The Threatening Storm, bestselling author Kenneth Pollack both informed and defined the national debate about Iraq. Now, in The Persian Puzzle, published to coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis, he examines the behind-the-scenes story of the tumultuous relationship between Iran and the United States, and weighs options for the future. Here Pollack, a former CIA analyst and National Security Council official, brings his keen analysis and insider perspective to the long and ongoing clash between the United States and Iran, beginning with the fall of the shah and the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran in 1979. Pollack examines all the major events in U.S.-Iran relations–including the hostage crisis, the U.S. tilt toward Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, the Iran-Contra scandal, American-Iranian military tensions in 1987 and 1988, the covert Iranian war against U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf that culminated in the 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, and recent U.S.-Iran skirmishes over Afghanistan and Iraq. He explains the strategies and motives from American and Iranian perspectives and tells how each crisis colored the thinking of both countries’ leadership as they shaped and reshaped their policies over time. Pollack also describes efforts by moderates of various stripes to try to find some way past animosities to create a new dynamic in Iranian-American relations, only to find that when one side was ready for such a step, the other side fell short. With balanced tone and insight, Pollack explains how the United States and Iran reached this impasse; why this relationship is critical to regional, global, and U.S. interests; and what basic political choices are available as we deal with this important but deeply troubled country.
Examines Iran's current nuclear potential while charting America's future course of action, recounting the prolonged clash between both nations to outline options for American policymakers.
A woman is found strangled, floating in the swimming pool of Jeffery Rhineman’s fashionable Ft. Lauderdale estate. Private detective Jake Wayde is hired to find the killer. Jeffery Rhineman, a man, known to Wayde from a previous murder case, is attempting to sell a deadly formula invented by his late father, the famous chemist Dr. Frederick Rhineman. Reneging on the deals, he’d made to supply the formula, Iranian and Palestinian operatives pursue him and Jeffery goes into hiding. A trail of murders sets Wayde on a path to learn his new particular situation’s connected to the earlier case involving Jeffery.
Immortal is the only single-volume English-language survey of Iran’s military history. CIA analyst Steven R. Ward shows that Iran’s soldiers, from the famed “Immortals” of ancient Persia to today’s Revolutionary Guard, have demonstrated through the centuries that they should not be underestimated. This history also provides background on the nationalist, tribal, and religious heritages of the country to help readers better understand Iran and its security outlook. Immortal begins with the founding of ancient Persia’s empire under Cyrus the Great and continues through the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) and up to the present. Drawing on a wide range of sources including declassified documents, the author gives primary focus to the modern era to relate the build-up of the military under the last Shah, its collapse during the Islamic revolution, its fortunes in the Iran-Iraq War, and its rise from the ashes to help Iran become once again a major regional military power. He shows that, despite command and supply problems, Iranian soldiers demonstrate high levels of bravery and perseverance and have enjoyed surprising tactical successes even when victory has been elusive. These qualities and the Iranians’ ability to impose high costs on their enemies by exploiting Iran’s imposing geography bear careful consideration today by potential opponents.
