Obama's Iran Policy Research

Barack Obama took office as U.S. president when the United States beset withdifficulties internally and externally, he took over the “mess” left by former presidentGeorge W. Bush. Externally, two wars launched by U.S. led to the decline of itsinternational images, and the U.S.-Islamic relations became worse and worse, anti-U.S.parades outbreak frequently in Islamic countries, besides, Asia-Pacific region is risingquickly. Internally, financial crisis had swept U.S. since2008, this made Americantrapped into economic troubles，and the anti-war movements occur frequently. At thebeginning of Obama’s ran for presidency, his slogan was “change”, and when hebecame the president he implemented “New Middle East Policy” which was differentfrom Bush. As the economic and political power second only to Turkey in the MiddleEast region, Iran has important strategic location and abundant oil and gas resources,what’s more, Iran has significant influence in Middle East, that is to say, Iran hasimportant interest for the United States.For more than30years, U.S. and Iran have been hostile, Iran has been committedto the development of nuclear project in last decade, causing panic in the United Statesand the world at large. Obama implemented the two-track policy of engagement andcontainment after he became the president. At the beginning, he showed the willingnessto engage with Iran and negotiate on nuclear project, while this policy didn’t achieve theexpected effect, with his patience losing and the public pressure from home, he wentback to the old track of Bush gradually, he intensified both bilateral and multilateralsanction, strengthened its deployment in neighboring countries of Iran and strengthenedthe deterrence against Iran. Compared with Bush, president Obama is more flexible,more attention was paid to the cooperation between allies and internationalorganizations in dealing with Iran issues, besides, he took advantage of new media toserve for foreign policy. The trouble is the contradiction between two countries isdeeply rooted, their national interests are different, their mutual distrust made twocountries harder to reach agreements. What’s more, U.S. doesn’t have sincerity on Iran issues, Obama’s “change” is more like a “political show”, and American’s consistentlyadherence to double standards led to serious dissatisfaction from Iran and the wholeworld at large.Due to the different interests on different stages, Obama’s policies to Iran oftenchange. Internally, Obama must consider these factors, for example, the influence ofCongress and Israel lobbies, the financial situation after crisis, and the reliance onmiddle-east oil；Externally, because of the American strategy and the influence of Israeland Saudi Arabia, Obama’s policies to Iran were affected. In conclusion, Obama’s Iranpolicy was not successful, it didn’t improve U.S.-Iran relations fundamentally, and theIran nuclear project is still going on, and this project is developing even more quickly.Though the U.S.-Iran relation was getting better after Iran’s new president HassanRouhani took office, there is a long way to go for the settlement of U.S.-Iran problems.American have to combine the settlement of Iran nuclear issue and the relaxation ofU.S.-Iran relations.