U.S. Policy Toward Iran: From the Revolution to the Nuclear Accord, 1979-2015

Since the overthrow of the U.S.-backed Shah in 1979 and the subsequent hostage crisis, Iran has widely been considered a pariah state and a continuous challenge - not to say threat - to the United States. Yet, every American president has at some point sought to establish ties with the Islamic Republic. This collection traces the arc of this unusual relationship from among its darkest points - the 1979 embassy seizure, the 1983 Beirut bombings, the 1980s U.S. tilt toward Iraq, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, 9/11 and its aftermath, President Bush's 2002 Axis of Evil Speech, the resurgence of hard-line policies under President Ahmadinejad, and the fears over Iran's nuclear program - to the improbable signing of the controversial nuclear accord in 2015. The continuing relevance of U.S.-Iran relations and the issues documented here will make this collection a vital resource for scholars and students for the foreseeable future.