The Middle East Policy Forum is proud to host Dalia Dassa Kaye for a discussion about the timely and rigorous analysis found in her new book, Enduring Hostility: The Making of America's Iran Policy.

Amidst momentous geopolitical shifts, changing leaderships, and evolving domestic priorities, the United States and Iran have maintained an antagonistic relationship. Standard explanations pin the blame for this enduring hostility on Iran and its leaders' revolutionary ideology and policies at odds with the United States and the West. While Iran bears significant blame for a deeply adversarial relationship—the country often engages in dangerous and repressive activities—this book demonstrates that "it's them, not us" accounts cannot alone explain America's posture toward this complicated but critically important country.

Drawing on original interviews with former government officials, oral histories, memoirs, congressional hearings, archival material, and the author's own participation in dozens of Iran-related track two meetings, Dalia Dassa Kaye deftly explores how America's Iran policy is made, the people who make it, and the underlying ideas and perceptions that inform it. Dassa Kaye looks back at U.S. policy toward Iran over the past four decades to help us look ahead, offering wider lessons for understanding American foreign policymaking and providing critical insights at a pivotal time of heightened military tensions in and around the Middle East.

We hope you will join Dalia Dassa Kaye and moderator Sina Azodi for this discussion of a half-century of American policymakers' shifting perceptions of Iran, and how they have driven U.S.-Iran relations. You can participate in this conversation in-person or virtually. The event is open to the public and the media. If you would like to purchase a copy of Dalia Dassa Kaye’s new book, copies will be available for sale at the event.