Carrots, Sticks and Iran

Campus Report ^ | March 10, 2009 | Alanna Hultz

[bs9021]

Carrots, Sticks and Iran

by: Alanna Hultz, March 10, 2009

President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and United Nations ambassador Susan Rice have implied that direct talks with Iran are a priority. At an American Enterprise Institute event, former assistant Secretary of State James Dobbins, now of the RAND Corporation, a non-profit institution that helps improve policy and decision making through research and analysis, said “the U.S. should talk to Iranians but should not threaten to bomb them if they don’t listen.” Dobbins said “the U.S. should talk to Iranians but should not threaten to bomb them if they don’t listen.” Dobbins said that “In the past we have met and talked with the Soviet Union and it’s often led to disagreements, but at least we were able to get information.”

Dobbins said that “it is not a good idea to threaten. Threats don’t produce results and it’s not an effective diplomatic tactic.” He served as an assistant Secretary of State to both Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.

Kenneth M. Pollack, a former director of Persian Gulf affairs at the National Security Council, who is now at the Brookings Institution, is also in favor of an engagement with Iran. Pollack also worked in the Clinton Administration.

Pollack said “we have three different audiences when discussing engagement: European allies, Iranian people and Iranian leadership.” European allies and the international community need to get behind the U.S. and be serious about the pressure they put on Iran. Pollack says that “we need to make clear to the Iranian people that were interested in the behavior of the regime not the nature, we are offering sound community and security and in return would like them to give up their weapons.”....