Strategic Impacts and Ramifications of U.S-Iran Rapprochement: The End of a Beginning

Abstract

American post war intervention and engagement in the larger Middle East (Middle East and Persia Gulf) is no coincidence but a calculated strategy for long term national interest. A protracted and active presence of Washington is arguably the continuity of Western imperialism in the region and thus bound to be resisted. Washington-Tehran relations predated the Islamic revolutionary that accorded a new regional and global bearing to Iran. The revolution by all accounts was one of the representations of Iranian resistance to Western imperialism. For more than three decades, U.S-Iran animosity has benefited and has been exploited by competing power centres, though of recent, the two are mending ways through diplomatic efforts that could ultimately be a defining moment for the region. The paper looks at the strategic impacts and ramifications of the new dawn in U.S-Iran relations and regional antagonism it has awoken. The paper argues that the rapprochement resonates with U.S long term interest in the region, thus short term illusions should not dissuade Washington from augmenting and consolidating the new level of relations. From a strategic standpoint, the paper avers that any sort of success story emanating from the rapprochement should be best attributed to the hard, committed and multilateral European diplomacy. The paper also discusses the corollary of the rapprochement beyond the Middle East and the nuance it provides in understanding Middle East geopolitics.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n1p153