The nuclear deal reached in July by Iran and its international interlocutors marks an obvious turning point in the Islamic Republic's relations with the outside world, particularly with the United States. But why has it taken so much longer for the U.S. to come to terms with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's revolution in Iran than it did with Mao Zedong's revolution in China?
Of course, one explanation for the prolonged bilateral freeze is the warped discourse of what George W. Bush foolishly called the "global war on terror," in which Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, was cast as part of an international "axis of evil." As a result, U.S. officials viewed any move toward diplomatic normalization as unacceptable "appeasement."
But the Bush administration's moralistic foreign policy merely reinforced America's stance since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. And it is in the history and course of that revolution that a fuller and more compelling explanation of recent events is to be found.