The counter-demonstrations on November 4 (officially dubbed as the national day against global arrogance) showed that Iran′s political crisis - sparked by allegations of vote-rigging in June′s presidential elections - is far from over. The political developments of the past five months have been unprecedented and a close examination of the strategic forces at play will go a long way in understanding this crisis.
In the face of mounting pressure from hawks in Washington and the continued threat of military action from Israel, the Barack Obama Administration has been taking a harder line in its latest pronouncements about Iran
In a recent policy paper by the New American Foundation (among whose board members sits Francis 'End of History' Fukuyama), it is argued that the next U.S. administration must engage Iran with a 'grand bargain', which addresses both Iran and the U.S.'s strategic concerns. The paper argues that the piecemeal approach the U.S. has taken towards Iran has clearly failed to change the behavior of the regime in Iran, and a détente is not a desirable option. The only stable and strategically appropriate path to take is a full rapprochement.