Resource Type:

Report-Paper

Posted On: Mar 05, 2009

Posted By: Ashley March

URL:

http://www.cato.org

Description:

During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Obama said he would pursue diplomacy without preconditions with the political leadership of Iran. Today the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding two hearings about U.S.-Iran relations. It is too soon to tell whether the new administration and Congress will continue the failed policies of the last 30 years or move towards the wiser course of normalizing relations. In the "U.S. Policy toward Iran" chapter of the Cato Handbook for Policymakers, Justin Logan explains why policymakers should:
- Press for direct diplomacy with the Iranian leadership;
- Keep diplomatic aims limited to the Iranian nuclear program;
- Evaluate and compose a ‘‘Plan B'' in the event that diplomacy fails;
- Seek advice from U.S. military leaders about the implications of military action against Iran;
- Educate the public that there is little evidence the Iranian leadership would use nuclear weapons unprovoked; and
- Make clear that the war power rests in the hand of Congress, and that it is not the prerogative of the president to launch military action unauthorized.