Said Christopher Brown, there was some outreach to Iran from the Clinton administration. We should bypass the government and go to the people; the government is legitimized by US antagonism to it. We must do all we can to undermine the government.
Yours truly had the gall, among those experts, to ask Mr. Amirahmadi how exactly compromise with Iran can come about, given his vehement advocation of it.
Said Mr. Amirahmadi, after denying expertise in this area, the conflict is spiral. Genuinely good acts are suspect. We need to break the spiral. We need a policy more logical than sanctions on oil and gas. Iran must have energy options. Said John Ferris, good will takes a long time. Relations will improve if Iran’s government falls. The people don’t support it.
Added Novikov, did communism fail because of the US? No, the motivation was that the ruling class wanted to change the system for its own benefit. We need not undermine the Iranian government; it will change from within not from outside forces.
Conference, Part 2: International Implications of Iran’s Economy and Energy Security
The second panel discussion yesterday afternoon delivered a prompt rebuke to the first. Gholam Razi, professor emeritus at the University of Houston, began his presentation “Interdependence v. Multilateralism: US Policies toward Iran and the Energy Market” by attacking the first panel’s assumption that the US foreign policy is “right” and can correct all problems. There are times we can’t achieve our goals and the world won’t help us. Sources of US policy problems follow:
1. Our concept of the international system is defective and outdated.
2. There is a misunderstanding of our domestic policies.
3. Some of our tools are inefficient.
4. There are problems of leadership, which makes all the decisions while the American people do not, at every level. Few rule on behalf of many.
Pertaining to 1), we look at history and try to detect trends. But foreign policy must look at the present to plan for the future. There is a cultural lag; for example, Marco Polo brought gun powder from China but the best academies still teach fencing.
We must increase interdependence in the world—the Arab oil embargo certainly forced the US to view power differently.
Military power can’t solve problems.
Consider the rise of “nonstate” factors: there is a whole new set of actors including intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, the UN, terrorists; the state is not as important as it used to be.
Today there are different alliances and sets of issues.
New issues are arising—e.g., the environment and the multinational response to rescue it.
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