Going to Tehran: Why America Must Accept the Islamic Republic of Iran

Two former U.S. national-security officials argue that Washington has spent three decades misreading the Islamic Republic. They contend that Iran is a rational, legitimate and durable state actor, that the "irrationality," "illegitimacy" and "isolation" myths driving U.S. policy are empirically false, and that America must follow Nixon's China opening and come to terms with Tehran before drifting into a war it cannot afford. Published in 2013 and reissued in paperback with a new afterword.