Purchase
Dealing With The New Iranian Superpower
Three Rivers Press
August 2009
On Sale: August 18, 2009
288 pages
ISBN: 0307408671
EAN: 9780307408679
Trade Size (reprint)
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
Over the past thirty years, while the United States has turned either a blind or dismissive eye, Iran has emerged as a nation every bit as capable of altering Americaβs destiny as traditional superpowers Russia and China. Indeed, one of this bookβs central arguments is that, in some ways, Iranβs grip on Americaβs future is even tighter.
As exβCIA operative Robert Baer masterfully shows, Iran has maneuvered itself into the elite superpower ranks by exploiting Americansβ false perceptions of what Iran isβby letting us believe it is a country run by scowling religious fanatics, too preoccupied with theocratic jostling and terrorist agendas to strengthen its political and economic foundations.
The reality is much more frighteningβand yet contained in the potential catastrophe is an implicit political response that, if weβre bold enough to adopt it, could avert disaster.
Baerβs on-the-ground sleuthing and interviews with key Middle East playersβeveryone from an Iranian ayatollah to the king of Bahrain to the head of Israelβs internal securityβpaint a picture of the centuries-old Shia nation that is starkly the opposite of the one normally drawn. For example, Iranβs hate-spouting President Ahmadinejad is by no means the true spokesman for Iranian foreign policy, nor is Iran making it the highest priority to become a nuclear player.
Even so, Baer has discovered that Iran is currently engaged in a soft takeover of the Middle East, that the proxy method of war-making and co-option it perfected with Hezbollah in Lebanon is being exported throughout the region, that Iran now controls asignificant portion of Iraq, that it is extending its influence over Jordan and Egypt, that the Arab Emirates and other Gulf States are being pulled into its sphere, and that it will shortly have a firm hold on the worldβs oil spigot.
By mixing anecdotes with information gleaned from clandestine sources, Baer superbly demonstrates that Iran, far from being a wild-eyed rogue state, is a rational actorβone skilled in the game of nations and so effective at thwarting perceived Western colonialism that even rival Sunnis relish fighting under its banner.
For U.S. policy makers, the choices have narrowed: either cede the worldβs most important energy corridors to a nation that can match us militarily with its asymmetric capabilities (which include the use of suicide bombers)βor deal with the devil we know. We might just find that in allying with Iran, weβll have increased not just our own security but that of all Middle East nations.The alternativeβto continue goading Iran into establishing hegemony over the Muslim worldβis too chilling to contemplate.
 Media BuzzTalk of the Nation - November 30, 2010
Good Morning America - July 8, 2010
Colbert Report - March 23, 2010
Colbert Report - March 15, 2010
| 
© 2003-2026