Can Iranians and Americans find common ground to overcome their troubled history? U.S.-Iran Misperceptions is the first written dialogue on the key issues that separate these two great countries. Bringing together former policy makers and international relations experts from the United States and Iran, U.S.-Iran Misperceptions: A Dialogue provides new insights into and arguments about how each country's elites view the other, and how misperceptions have blocked the two from forging a normal and productive relationship. Guided by the leading theorist of misperceptions in international relations, Columbia University Professor Robert Jervis, the book moves from Jervis's opening essay to consider mutual perceptions of ideology, nuclear weapons, neo-imperialism, regional hegemony, and the future of the relationship. It presents authoritative, clear-eyed assessments, while seeking plausible ways the two countries can avoid a catastrophic war and rebuild the relationship. U.S.-Iran Misperceptions: A Dialogue offers uncompromising analysis and cautious optimism.

AcknowledgementsList of Contributors1. U.S.-Iran Misperceptions: Invitation to a Dialogue, by Abbas Maleki and John Tirman2. The United States and Iran: Perceptions and Policy Traps, by Robert Jervis3. Iranian Perceptions of U.S. Policy towards Iran: Ayatollah Khamenei's Mindset, by Seyed Hossein Mousavian4. American Perceptions of Iran's Policy towards the United States5. Iran's Perception of the U.S. Policy towards the Region, by Kayhan Barzegar6. America's Perceptions of Iran's Policy towards the Region, by John Tirman7. The Future of U.S.-Iran Relations, by Huss Banai8. Improving U.S.-Iranian Relations and Overcoming Perceptual Biases, by Abbas Maleki and Robert ReardonBibliographyIndex