Harnessing All Elements of U.S. Power

How can the United States prevent the emergence of an emboldened Iran with nuclear weapons?  By harnessing all elements of U.S. power “into a strategy that focuses on three key concrete goals…counterproliferation, counterterrorism, and counterinsurgency,” says a new report from the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) and the McCormick Tribune Foundation.

If successful, the strategy would prevent Iran from developing the nuclear capability on which it is making real progress, curtail its ability to sponsor terrorist groups that increasingly destabilize the region, and curb its meddling in Iraq, according to Confronting Iran: U.S. Options[i], the product of a working group co-chaired by McCormick’s Brig. Gen David L. Grange (ret.) and AFPC’s Ilan Berman (a member of the Committee on the Present Danger).

Such a strategy requires action in four key areas. Those areas, and the steps required in each, include:

Diplomatic and international efforts to:

·        Educate Americans about the threat of Iran;

·        Enhance broadcasting into Iran;

·        Spread Western ideas across Iran;

·        Use new media to better communicate with Iran’s next generation of leaders;

·        De-legitimize the current regime;

·        Empower the regime’s opponents; and

·        Clearly inform the regime about the costs of its continued rogue behavior.

·        Revive human intelligence capabilities within Iran;

·        Obtain better access to Iran-related information from our allies;

·        Reform the intelligence bureaucracy to respond to, and plan against, the regime; and

·        Create a more flexible legal framework to conduct intelligence operations.

·        Increase the pressure on Iran’s trading partners;

·        Enforce unilateral sanctions against countries and companies doing business with Iran;

·        Consider embargos and blockades, particularly on Iran’s energy sector; and

·        Elevate divestment efforts from state government to the federal government.

·        Comprehensively assess Iran’s operational and tactic vulnerabilities;

·        Build the capacity for unconventional warfare within Iran;

·        Target Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal to downgrade its offensive and nuclear capabilities; and

·        Cut the regime’s ties to its terrorist proxies, with force if necessary.