Enduring Hostility

How US-Iran policy is made, the people who make it, and the underlying ideas and perceptions that inform it. US policy toward Iran has remained remarkably consistent since the earliest years of the Reagan administration. Even momentous geopolitical shifts, changing leaderships, and evolving domestic priorities have not fundamentally altered this seemingly permanent hostile relationship. Standard explanations pin the blame on Iran and its revolutionary leaders propagating an ideology and policies at odds with the US and the West. While there is no doubt that Iran bears significant blame for a deeply adversarial relationship—the country often engages in dangerous and repressive activities and regularly violates international law and norms—this book argues that “it’s them, not us” accounts cannot alone explain the unusual nature of America’s posture toward this complicated but critically important country. This book tells the story of the making of America’s Iran policy over the past four decades, offering a window into how foreign policy is constructed in Washington and why it is so often difficult to change. Drawing on original interviews with former and current government officials, as well as the author’s own participation in dozens of track two meetings related to Iran over the past twenty years, Kaye deftly explores how America’s Iran policy is made, the people who make it, and the underlying ideas and perceptions that inform it. America’s stance on Iran is at its core homegrown, shaped by the worldviews and predominant framing and discourse on Iran across several generations of American policymakers. This book illustrates how such views and resulting policies became deeply entrenched, reinforced by Iran’s own antagonistic posture. Kaye looks back at US policy toward Iran to help us look ahead, offering wider lessons for current dynamics in American foreign policymaking.