United States-Iranian relations: History, culture, and policy implications

The objective of this essay is to establish an analytical framework with which to evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of current US foreign policy toward Iran as well as its compatibility with US stated long term interests in the Middle East. These include ending state sponsored terrorism, the success of US efforts to establish a stable democratic government in Iraq, and securing oil interests for the long term. By engaging in a historical analysis of specific events in US-Iranian relations since 1945, the work identifies and examines key domestic and external variables in both the US and Iran which have shaped their respective foreign policies. My aim is to determine why the US and Iran have become trapped in a "cold war" security dilemma that has persisted since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.;Iran sees itself as a nation under threat of foreign domination which likely originates both in Iran's history with the West and on recent developments in the region. Iran's foreign policy in part reflects reason of state but also reflects Iran's fragmented and conflictual domestic political culture; its failure to develop a strong and self assured industrial economy; as well as the complex interplay of religious and cultural interests within and across Iran's border. For its part, the US faces a growing disparity between its intentions as the global hegemon and the outcomes of its foreign policies in the region This disparity is reflected in US-Iranian relations where the state of Iran not only persists in menacing US interests, but also Iran's regional power and role is ascendant.