The Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank, held a seminar last week exploring a more obscure facet of President Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal (or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action/JCPOA).
The panel of Ilan Berman, senior vice-president of the American Foreign Policy Council, Michael Doran, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and Haroon Ullah, chief strategy officer at the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG.gov), was all about spin, but for a change the spin had nothing to do with centrifuges.
The panel’s spin was concerned with communication and it appears Iran is doing a better job than the United States.
Doran points to what he terms an "ambiguity" in U.S. messaging toward Iran.
Does the U.S. desire "behavior change" on the part of Iran, or is our end goal "regime change"? His analysis of the president’s communication is that Trump is talking about behavior change. This is not an appealing message to anti-government protesters within Iran who want regime change.
On the other hand, Doran says, Iran’s communication to the world is "better at syncing message to action than the US." Part of that is because Iran is a smaller power with fewer departments to coordinate. But I imagine it’s also because Iran has more fanatics calling the shots.
Both Berman and Doran want the U.S. communication strategy to settle on a unified message that Berman describes as, "focusing on freedom and democracy, putting new events in that context." Doran contends a successful strategy would "discuss the elements of Iran policy that reflect poorly on Iran."
Those policies include the focus on gaining nuclear weapons in the future that creates economic sanctions today making life within Iran more difficult. News on corruption within the Iranian government, which is not hard to find, will also create unrest. As Berman emphasizes "focus on freedom and democracy."
Trump’s cancelling the Iran agreement "initiated a competition with the regime," Doran explains. The European reaction ranged from "annoyed to enraged."
Naturally Iran wants to exploit that.
What we must do in return is explain to Iran’s populace that the decisions of the leadership are solely responsible for their hardships internally. "We have not made this case in the past," Doran said.
I like Doran’s focus on sanctions being the result of the mullah’s radioactive pursuit of nukes, but only in the short term. In the long term, it would be better for Iran and the world if our focus was on Berman’s freedom and democracy, which eventually equals regime change.
Achieving that goal will require coordination and consistency, and that in turn requires an emphasis on a unified message coming from the Oval Office.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.