Nuclear Diplomacy with Iran: A Deal, Not a Grand Bargain

The nuclear agreement with Iran is a deal, not a grand bargain. In both Iran and America, the issue is a proxy for a more fundamental debate—in Tehran, about its identity—revolutionary state versus ordinary country—and relationship to the outside world; in Washington, about whether the U.S. objective toward Iran should be behavior change or regime change. This embedded status accounts for the protracted length of the negotiations and the sharply divergent reactions in the United States to the agreement.