Beyond the "Grand Bargain": U.S.-Russian Cooperation on Iran
Leon Aron, John R. Bolton
May 13, 2009
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When President Barack Obama and President Dmitri Medvedev pledged last month in London to "chart a fresh start" in U.S.-Russian relations, Iran's nuclear program was among the key areas of cooperation. Forging a common position on Iran will be a difficult task, however, as Russian strategic interests in Iran diverge sharply from those of the United States. The Obama administration has promised "crippling sanctions" if dialogue with Iran fails, but Russian support of such measures seems unlikely. Nuclear technology and military hardware contracts with Iran bring billions of dollars into Russia's coffers, while the Kremlin's opposition to sanctions in the United Nations Security Council has boosted Russia's image as a world power equal to the United States, a protector of a key Muslim state, and a central player in the Middle East.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration hinted at a "grand bargain" of scaling down or abandoning missile defense in Europe in exchange for Russian assistance in addressing the Iranian nuclear threat. Will that be enough to persuade Russia to give up all the geostrategic benefits of its current stance on Iran? How does Russia define its interests in the Iranian nuclear problem? Are there grounds for agreement between the United States and Russia on Iran? At this AEI event, a group of leading experts on Russian and U.S. policy toward Iran will address these and other questions.

About the Author

 

Leon
Aron

  • Leon Aron is Resident Scholar and Director of Russian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of three books and over 300 articles and essays. Since 1999, he has written Russian Outlook, a quarterly essay on economic, political, social and cultural aspects of Russia’s post-Soviet transition, published by the Institute. He is the author of the first full-scale scholarly biography of Boris Yeltsin, Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life (St. Martin’s Press, 2000); and Russia’s Revolution: Essays 1989-2006 (AEI Press,2007); Roads to the Temple: Memory, Truth, Ideals and Ideas in the Making ofthe Russian Revolution, 1987-1991 (Yale University Press, Spring 2012).


    Dr. Aron earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University, has taught a graduate seminar at Georgetown University, and was awarded the Peace Fellowship at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He has co-edited and contributed the opening chapter to The Emergence of Russian Foreign Policy, published by the U.S. Institute of Peace in 1994 and contributed an opening chapter to The New Russian Foreign Policy (Council on Foreign Relations, 1998).


    Dr. Aron has contributed numerous essays and articles to newspapers andmagazines, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, theWall Street Journal,   Foreign Policy, The NewRepublic, Weekly Standard, Commentary, New York Times Book Review, the TimesLiterary Supplement. A frequent guest of television and radio talkshows, he has commented on Russian affairs for, among others, 60 Minutes,The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Charlie Rose, CNN International,C-Span, and National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and “Talk of theNation.”


    From 1990 to 2004, he was a permanent discussant at the Voice of America’s radio and television show Gliadya iz Ameriki (“Looking from America”), which was broadcast to Russia every week.

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John R.
Bolton
  • John R. Bolton, a diplomat and a lawyer, has spent many years in public service. From August 2005 to December 2006, he served as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations. From 2001 to 2005, he was under secretary of state for arms control and international security. At AEI, Ambassador Bolton's area of research is U.S. foreign and national security policy.

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