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Becoming Enemies: U.S.-Iran Relations and the Iran-Iraq War, 1979-1988

With its remarkable declassified documentation and oral testimony that bear directly on questions of U.S. policymaking with regard to the Iran-Iraq War, "Becoming Enemies" reveals much that was previously unknown about U.S. policy before, during, and after the war. The authors go beyond mere reportage to offer lessons regarding fundamental foreign policy challenges to the U.S. that transcend time and place.

Date & Time

Monday
Oct. 15, 2012
4:00pm – 5:30pm ET

Location

6th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
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Overview

Becoming Enemies brings the unique methods of critical oral history, developed to study flashpoints from the Cold War such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, to understand U.S. and Iranian relations from the fall of the Shah in 1978 through the Iranian hostage crisis and the Iraq-Iran war. Scholars and former officials involved with U.S. and UN policy take a fresh look at U.S and Iranian relations during this time, with special emphasis on the U.S. role in the Iran Iraq War. With its remarkable declassified documentation and oral testimony that bear directly on questions of U.S. policymaking with regard to the Iran-Iraq War, Becoming Enemies reveals much that was previously unknown about U.S. policy before, during, and after the war. They go beyond mere reportage to offer lessons regarding fundamental foreign policy challenges to the U.S. that transcend time and place.

Panelists include:
James Blight (Author andCIGI Chair in Foreign Policy Development at BSIA)
janet M. Lang (Author and Adjunct Associate Professor of International Reations, Brown University
Malcolm Byrne (Author and Deputy Director, National Security Archive, George Washington University)
John Tirman (Author and Executive Director and a Principal Research Scientist at MIT's Center for International Studies)
Bruce Riedel, (Senior Fellow, Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, former Iran and Middle East analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency)

David Ottaway, Wilson Center senior scholar will chair the event.

Visit the Rowman & Littlefield website to purchase the book.

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Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

Middle East Program

The Wilson Center’s Middle East Program serves as a crucial resource for the policymaking community and beyond, providing analyses and research that helps inform U.S. foreign policymaking, stimulates public debate, and expands knowledge about issues in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.  Read more

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