To Contain or not to Contain
|
CHANGE AND CONTINUITY IN THE MIDDLE
EAST
Conflict Resolution and Prospects for Peace
Edited by M.E. Ahrari - St. Martins's Press
Reviewed by Farhad Sepahbody for "Chanteh," May 1998, a
Cross-Cultural Magazine, Washington D.C.
Chanteh@aol.com
In these United States, and where Iran is concerned, there are, according to a July 97 report from the respectable National Committee on American Foreign Policy, the "engagers" and then the "containers." Engagers argue that the p~icy of containment has not yielded the expected results. It has harmed U.S. relations with its allies, hurt U.S. interests in the region, and could push Iranian clerics toward violent conduct. In other words, they are for a dialogue with Iran. Containers on the other hand, reject the arguments developed by engagers. They contend that Iran's "uncivilized" behavior has barely changed since the revolution, what with political prisoners, terrorism, assassinations of dissidents abroad and Iran's urge to derail the Middle East peace process. They demand continued toughness from the U.S.
For the almost three millions Iranians in exile - and, I imagine, for the many more inside Iran - Change and Continuity in the Middle East: Conflict Resolution and Prospects for Peace, edited by M.E. Ahrari, divulges nothing remarkably new. He is neither a contender nor an engager, just an analyst.
His book, which is a collection of articles by different writers (he himself wrote the main study) is just one more well-constructed horizontal exercise on the slippery issues of present Iran's "two-facec foreign policy," as he calls it, and a host of other problems plaguing the Middle-East. These are according to Mr. Ahrari, the unremitting arms race, authoritarian rule, religious extremism, Saudi-Iranian rivalry, and, not the least, Iran's "Janus- faced" foreign policy which causes such consternation and confusion among its Gulf neighbors and a continuing American resolve to exclude Iran from the future security arrangements in the Persian Gulf.
Interestingly enough, Mr. Ahrari is a professor of National Security and Strategy at the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. This reminds us that in the U.S. as well as in other Western nations there are many Iranians in sensitive positions and in well-known think tanks. Some are rather wise and some perhaps slightly otherwise. But we sincerely hope that they all have conflict resolution, the long-run interests of their motherland, and the prospects for peace in mind. The book is informative and contains a wealth of information.
In Chapter 1, Ahrari deals with the Peace Process and Post-Cold war perspectives. In Chapter 2, Nader Entessar, a professor of International studies in Alabama, dwells at length and with much details on the Kurdish puzzle. In Chapter 3, Ahrari, Brigid Starkey, and Nader Entessar team up to recognize that the Shah's policy was a classic "realist" course - Iran became the envy of its long-time regional rivals. In Chapter 4, Ahrari reappears with an article on "Islam as a Source of Continuity and Change in the Middle East." Don't miss it, specially when he speaks of Islam vs. Secularism. Is this a permanent chasm? In Chapter 5, James Noyes, author of The Clouded Lens and presently a research fellow at the Hoover Institution talks about the "Prospects for Democracy in the Middle East." Are there any? And did the author sent a copy of his article to Netanyahu? Others chapters deal with the GCC Region, the Middle East arms race. All and all, an abundance of information in that serves well as a prompt for answers to hot topics.
But don't we know it all? The present mess and the story of the rise and fall of the Pahlavi regime holds three lessons, one for historians, one for statesmen, and one for us Iranians. The one for historians stems out from the ever-repeating story of a leader who in later years, perhaps due to confusion, sickness, tiredness, or excessive ambition shuns reality and prefers to listen to sycophants. The one for statesmen is how a great global power forcing its will on an allied leader helps erode his popular support and thus finally defeat its own ends. And for us, disheartened Iranians, the moral of the story is that only we can save ourselves from the present quandary.
Farhad Sepahbody, a frequent collaborator of Chanteh, lives in Sedona, Arizona.