The United States is long overdue for a re-evaluation of its foreign policy toward Iran. Fortunately, the Pentagon favors a more balanced approach than the military strategy of the George W. Bush administration, said Anthony Zinni, former head of U.S. Central Command, May 4, as part of his last week as a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor.

Zinni, who was former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's special envoy to the Middle East in 2002-03 and co-author of three books, including "Leading the Charge: Leadership Lessons From the Battlefield to the Boardroom," presented "National Security Strategy and Iran" in Goldwin Smith Hall.

"Relations between the United States and Iran have been up and down," Zinni told an audience of more than 100 people. He also noted that former President Bush's labeling Iran as part of an "Axis of Evil" in his 2002 State of the Union Address has discouraged Iran from any diplomatic talks with the United States.

"I think Iran has suffered, especially in this last century, with the feeling that they don't get any respect. The sense that they weren't achieving the status in the region or even globally that they deserve stuck in the psyche of Iranians," Zinni said.

Iran plays a significant role in the world economy and international energy security by supplying petroleum and natural gas to other countries, particularly to Europe and the Far East, Zinni said, but the United States guarantees that free flow of oil by their military presence in the Gulf. Countries that are more dependent on Middle East energy do not even have a strong military presence in the region, Zinni said.

"Really it's the U.S. that provides the military guarantee that the energy needs of China, Japan and Western Europe are served. It's an unusual relationship," he said.

Zinni said that one hindrance to improving U.S.-Iranian relations is that power in the regime is very distributed in that there are many players.

"If you look at a diagram of the Iranian regime, it is a Rube Goldberg collection of things that makes it hard to tell who is really in charge," he said. "They have councils and assemblies, the supreme leader, a guardian council, an assembly of experts, the president, the military force and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard."

Zinni questioned the effectiveness of the United States' current focus on sanctions on Iran, saying that the burden of sanctions hits civilians most. Another option is containment, which requires strong international cooperation that the United States does not have.

Further still are military strikes, but Zinni warned against making the same mistakes that were made in Iraq, where we failed to adequately plan beyond the initial invasion.

"Don't think in terms of the one action, but drill down to the second and third order effects. Remember the repercussions -- what we have to live with and what we will create," advised Zinni.

The European Union feels strongly about opening a dialogue with Iran, Zinni said. "It has not been very successful, but they really want to pursue this over sanctions and military action," he said.

Zinni believes that Iran sees Russia and China as where its interests lie. "Iran sees no need for a dialogue with the United States," he said.

Farrah Tan '10 is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.