Hidden Iran - Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic
by Ray Takeyh
Holt, HK$143
Attempts at 'containment' have been a disaster for the Bush administration. Emergent China is finding considerable support around a so-called Beijing Consensus based on a more co-operative economic and geopolitical framework than the failed 'us or them' of the Washington Consensus. And Iran's influence in the Middle East has grown under US threats and clumsy attempts to divide Muslims that serve only to fuel extremism. Ray Takeyh, a fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, which publishes the journal Foreign Affairs, has long called for deeper bipartisan understanding of non-Arab Iran. Hidden Iran is an authoritative and accessible argument that unstoppable change is under way in Iran. But the crude rhetoric of the US only stymies pragmatists seeking political liberalisation amid a complex transition marked by myriad power struggles, and Bush ally Saudi Arabia would rather not see Iran's pragmatists succeed. Takeyh is right to stress how US and Iranian 'strategic interests coincide in the region' and that direct negotiations need not be paralysed by Tehran's nuclear ambitions, real or imagined. But Washington must first see Iran as something more than caricature.
