Preventing a Hegemonic Iran

Published February 2, 2021

The United States’ conciliatory foreign policy approach to Iran has overlooked the hostile ideology that drives the regime. Understanding Iranian behavior begins with employing strategic empathy to fully understand the Iranian leadership’s ideology and its desire for hegemonic influence in the Middle East. The United States should improve defenses against the Iranian military and its terrorist proxies, disrupt Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon, and communicate with the Iranian people to expose the regime’s corruption.

Discussion Questions:

1. What assumptions have driven US foreign policy actions toward Iran? What are the implications of those assumptions?
2. How have Iran’s actions since 1979 shown a desire to drive the United States out of the region?

Additional Resources:

• Read Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World, by H. R. McMaster. Learn more here.
• Watch Battlegrounds: International Perspectives on Crucial Challenges to Security and Prosperity, a video series with H. R. McMaster. Available here.
• Listen to “Defending the Free World,” an episode of the GoodFellows podcast with H. R. McMaster. Available here.