The time has come for policymakers to consider previously unexploited tools of leverage, including U.S. soft power.
As broad international support lags for the kind of decisive sanctions against Iran likely to have an impact on the regime's pursuit of nuclear weapons, the time has come for policymakers to consider previously unexploited tools of leverage, including the implementation of U.S. "soft power." In The Missing Lever: Information Activities against Iran, Michael Eisenstadt argues that the use of words, actions, and emotive images as part of a sustained campaign to shape the psychological environment in Iran may be the greatest untapped source of U.S. influence over the Islamic Republic.
the author
Michael Eisenstadt is a senior fellow and director of The Washington Institute's Military and Security Studies Program. A specialist in Persian Gulf and Arab-Israeli security affairs, he has published scores of articles and monographs on the armed forces of the Middle East, irregular and conventional warfare, nuclear weapons proliferation in the region, and U.S. Middle East policy.
-
8 pages