The relationship between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been one of close cooperation versus one of confrontation. Since the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1978 -1979 and the United States breaking diplomatic relations with the new Islamic government in 1980, both governments has considered each other enemies. According to a Gallup Poll, Iran has ranked in the top five of United States’ greatest enemy from 2001 to 2015.

Professor Amin Saikal is a distinguished professor of Middle Eastern studies and author of several books on the region. In Iran at the Crossroads, Professor Saikal writes from the perspective of a Middle Easterner and examines not only Iran’s actions but also the actions and reactions of the United States. Often, he shows that the U.S. has been somewhat of an instigator in the problems of Iran and Middle East turmoil and has avoided past attempts to open relations with Iran.

Iran is “an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world…This is a great tribute to you, Your Majesty, and to your leadership and to the respect and the admiration and love which your people give to you.” President Jimmy Carter speaking in Tehran, December 1977.

Professor Saikal attributes the “resilience” of Iran to three factors: first is the nature of Iran’s unique pluralist Islamic political order, second, “the opportunities that became available… as a result of outside actors, and lastly “despite Tehran’s strong and publicly Islamic ideological stance, its foreign policy is driven largely by pragmatic rather than idealistic considerations.” How has the regime existed for nearly forty years?

In this book, Professor Saikal sets out to first look at the how Iran transformed from a pro-western monarchy to an Islamic Republic “with a unique…and odd system of an Islamic government” and then to look at “some of the salient issues underpinning the Iranian Islamic government’s policy behavior.” To accomplish this, he takes the reader back to Iran prior to Islam and brings the reader to the present to understand the struggle between Persia and its Arab neighbors, which continues to the present.

It is difficult to look at U.S. relations in the Middle East without considering its diplomatic and military actions in the region and its support for Israel and the strong U.S. Jewish lobby that has a dual policy of containment of Iran and Iraq. Professor Saikal points out that Iran has made overtures to the U.S., including condemning the 9/11 attacks and cooperating with the U.S. at the Bonn Conference on Afghanistan. He argues that Washington had an opportunity to respond positively during and after the conference, nevertheless U.S. hostility “intensified after 11 September when President George W. Bush included Iran in the “Axis of Evil.” Could U.S. relations in Iran have been different had the U.S. moved off its policy of containment and opened talks earlier with Iran? It is hard to consider this option while Iranian leadership considered the U.S. an evil power and “branding the holocaust as a Zionist ploy.

An issue that I found interesting in Professor Saikal’s book was the argument that the U.S. support of “Saddam Hussein in the Iran — Iraq War cemented regional loyalties cementing American-Iranian, Arab-Persian, and Sunni-Shi’a antagonism.” The last of which included spreading Shi’a Islam and linking Iran to other Shi’a regimes (Syria).

Professor Saikal gives credit to President Barack Obama in moving U.S. policy towards “engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.” His actions included a shift in U.S. Israel relations. President Obama cautioned Israel against launching “any unilateral action against Iran that could jeopardize U.S. diplomatic interests.” What will the future bring with the thawing of U.S. and Iranian relations?

I found many of Professor Saikal’s arguments that highlight the past opportunities, which were missed and could have made the region safer and more secure for the peoples of the Middle East to live and prosper very convincing. He does not end with looking at the past but also offers, “The future of the Islamic Republic of Iran may prove to be as complicated as the journey it has traveled so far.” It is overwhelmingly clear that Iranian regional and international policies and relations cannot move forward without Iran also dealing with its sociopolitical policies that have hampered internal growth. The need for change is represented by an International Monetary Fund study that found that Iran has the greatest “brain drain” of 90 countries measured.

“Despite the difficulties for President Rouhani and Obama, both sides currently have a more reasonable window of opportunity to move their countries toward a U.S.-Iranian rapprochement than any other time since the advent of the Iranian Islamic government.”

The release of this book is timely as the U.S. debates the recent agreement to lift sanctions and Iran’s agreement to make its nuclear program more transparent and within international norms. Professor Saikal provides a well-researched book, which belongs on the bookshelf of not only Middle East policy analysts but also by anyone that wishes to better understand the difficulty of Middle East politics, religion, and economics.

About the author: Amin Saikal is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National University. Professor Saikal has been a visiting fellow at Princeton University, Cambridge University, and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, as well as a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in International Relations (1983–1988). He was awarded the Order of Australia (AM) in January 2006 for his services to the international community and education as well as an advisor and author.

Dave Mattingly is a writer and national security consultant. He retired from the U.S. Navy with over thirty years of service. He is a member of the Military Writers Guild, NETGALLEY Challenge 2015 and a NETGALLEY Professional Reader.