The Rumi Forum presented ‘Iran and the United States: A Spiral of Suspicion’ with Prof. Paul R. Pillar, Visiting Professor and Director of Studies Security Studies Program – Georgetown University.
The United States and Iran have become locked in mutually reinforcing perceptions of threat and hostility reminiscent of the U.S.-Soviet relationship during the worst days of the Cold War. The rhetoric from both Tehran and Washington has brought out the worst of each side. The risk of tensions spiraling out of control is significant. The relationship was not foreordained to be this bad. The extent of convergent interests between the two states is considerably greater than most Americans suppose. Relations between the Islamic republic and Washington are unlikely ever to be warm, but a more sophisticated and accurate perception of politics in Tehran could make the relationship less dangerous than it is now.
Dr. Pillar is Visiting Professor and Director of Studies of the Security Studies Program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He retired in 2005 from a 28-year career in the U.S. intelligence community, in which his last position was National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia. Earlier he served in a variety of analytical and managerial positions, including as chief of analytic units at the CIA covering portions of the Near East, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. Dr. Pillar also served in the National Intelligence Council as one of the original members of its Analytic Group. He has been Executive Assistant to CIA’s Deputy Director for Intelligence and Executive Assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William Webster. He has also headed the Assessments and Information Group of the DCI Counterterrorist Center, and from 1997 to 1999 was deputy chief of the center. He was a Federal Executive Fellow at the Brookings Institution in 1999-2000.
Dr. Pillar received an A.B. summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, a B.Phil. from Oxford University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University. He is a retired officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and served on active duty in 1971-1973, including a tour of duty in Vietnam. He is the author of Negotiating Peace: War Termination as a Bargaining Process and Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy.