Report: U.S. Strategy Should Avoid Inflating Iran’s Role in Middle East Instability, Exploit Constraints on Iranian Power and Seek Areas of Engagement
Iran’s rise as a regional power presents a key foreign policy and security challenge to the United States, but its reach may be more limited than Western conventional wisdom suggests, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.
U.S. strategy must recognize Iran’s role as an influential, but not omnipotent, player in the Middle East and work to exploit existing barriers to Iran’s harmful activities, while simultaneously seeking areas of engagement, the study finds.
The study by RAND, a non-profit research organization, finds that a Cold-War-style containment approach mischaracterizes the threat from Iran, risking missed opportunities and potentially damaging other U.S. interests in the region. A combination of containment and engagement is more likely to succeed.
The report, “Dangerous But Not Omnipotent: Exploring the Reach and Limitations of Iranian Power in the Middle East,” is an in-depth survey of the strategic challenges posed by Iran, as well as limitations to its power projection.
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