The Foreign Service Journal, April 2008

10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 8 Iran Diplomacy: A New Opening? United Nations Association of the USA President William Luers, UNA- USA Chairman of the Board Thomas R. Pickering and MIT international security expert Jim Walsh have re- leased a proposal urging the adminis- tration to begin direct talks with Iran on what is arguably the single most important issue in the relationship: Tehran’s nuclear activities. The authors are among a group of former diplomats and regional experts who have been meeting privately with a group of Iranian academics and poli- cy advisers for the past five years. Both Luers and Pickering are retired FSOs and former ambassadors. Their recommendation, “A Solu- tion for the U.S.-Iran Nuclear Stand- off,” was published in the March 20 New York Review of Books ( www. nybooks.com/articles/21112 ). Two events prompted the initia- tive: the December 2007 National Intelligence Estimate for Iran, which concluded that Tehran had halted development of nuclear weapons in 2003; and the positive results from ongoing talks to reduce the number of improvised explosive devices and for- eign fighters coming from or through Iran into Iraq. The authors believe that the Iranian government would now seri- ously consider a proposal for direct talks with the U.S. on issues beyond Iraq. One reason is Iran’s 2009 presi- dential election. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may choose to try to boost his ratings through another con- frontation with the U.S., but this tac- tic is already proving counterproduc- tive. Another option would be to negotiate directly with the U.S. to resolve the nuclear impasse. Luers, Pickering and Walsh make a detailed case for the proposal to turn Tehran’s enrichment activities into a multilateral program involving, for example, France and Germany. In exchange, Iran would jointly own and operate an enrichment facility with- out facing international sanctions. The proposal promptly received a ringing endorsement from Senator Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. “This article presents a powerful case for a clear, strategic change in U.S. policy on Iran to pursue direct, unconditional and, ultimately, comprehensive talks with the government of Iran,” Hagel stat- ed. “Today, our policy is failing to change the facts on the ground — Iran’s nuclear program, including its uranium enrichment program, con- tinues essentially unchecked.” The Battle for Cyberspace The role of the Internet in nation- al and international affairs — and what, if anything, Washington should do about it — was the topic of two events in February. The potential for “cyberactivism” in the Middle East to produce needed reform was discussed by Iraqi, Iranian and American bloggers at the Ameri- can Enterprise Institute on Feb. 4 ( www.aei.org/events/eventID.16 50,filter.all/transcript.asp ). According to Mohammed Ali, a civil society activist who launched his Iraq the Model blog in 2003, the first Web logs in the area sprang up in Iraq following the U.S. invasion. Now, he says, some 100,000 blogs and dozens of forums in the Arab world involve several million people. That is signif- icant considering that of a total Arab population of 300 million, only 30 mil- lion have access to the Internet. The bloggers are trailblazers in openly discussing sensitive political, religious and social issues and in form- C YBERNOTES A merica must recruit and train a new generation of Foreign Service professionals with new expectations of what life as a diplomat will be. We see glimpses of this in many places today: in the jungles of Colombia, where our diplomats are helping old guerrilla fighters become new democ- ratic citizens; in the towns of the West Bank, where our diplomats are sup- porting Palestinian efforts to build the democratic institutions of a decent and free future state; in Zimbabwe, where our diplomats are taking up the just and peaceful cause of a tyrannized people. These men and women are not managing problems; they are working with partners to solve problems. — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking at Georgetown University, Feb. 12, www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2008/02/100703.htm