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Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/19/study-urges-us-to-tone-down-tehran-conflict/
RAND Study: "Unrealistic" to Believe U.S.-Iran Talks Will Change Tehran's Behavior
[Washington Times] Nicholas Kralev - A major study prepared for the U.S. Air Force by the RAND Corp. recommended "de-escalating" unilateral U.S. pressure on Tehran while strengthening multilateral sanctions and engaging Iran on regional security issues. The new study dismisses hopes that bilateral U.S.-Iran talks alone will change Tehran's behavior as "unrealistic" and advocates a broad international effort that would leverage incentives and punishment, depending on Iran's response. The report - "Dangerous But Not Omnipotent" - compares current U.S. policy toward Iran to Cold War-like containment and attributes failure to Washington's inability to "take into account features of the regional geopolitics and Iranian strategic culture." "Although more appealing, policies relying only on bilateral engagement and/or hopes for some sort of grand bargain are equally unrealistic," the document says.