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The Devil We Know
Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower
Author: Robert Baer
Narrator: Ted Barker
Unabridged: 9 hr 47 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 09/30/2008
Categories: Nonfiction, Political Science, World Politics, History, Middle Eastern History
Synopsis
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A frighteningly prescient look at Iran’s unchecked growth as a hidden superpower, and the threat the nation will soon pose to the United States—and the world.
“The most important book on the Middle East to appear in many years”—Thomas Powers, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Intelligence Wars
As ex-CIA operative Robert Baer masterfully shows in The Devil We Know, Iran has maneuvered itself into the elite superpower ranks by exploiting Americans’ false perceptions of what Iran is—by letting us believe it is a country run by scowling religious fanatics, too preoccupied with theocratic jostling and terrorist agendas to strengthen its political and economic foundations.
The reality is much more frightening.
Baer mixes on-the-ground sleuthing and interviews with key players to demonstrate that Iran, far from being a wild-eyed rogue state, is a rational actor—one skilled in the game of nations and ruthlessly effective at thwarting Western colonialism. For U.S. policy makers, the choices have narrowed: either cede the world’s most important energy corridors to a nation that can match us militarily with its asymmetric capabilities (which include the use of suicide bombers)—or deal with the devil we know. The alternative—to continue goading Iran into establishing hegemony over the Muslim world—is too chilling to contemplate.
“The most important book on the Middle East to appear in many years”—Thomas Powers, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Intelligence Wars
As ex-CIA operative Robert Baer masterfully shows in The Devil We Know, Iran has maneuvered itself into the elite superpower ranks by exploiting Americans’ false perceptions of what Iran is—by letting us believe it is a country run by scowling religious fanatics, too preoccupied with theocratic jostling and terrorist agendas to strengthen its political and economic foundations.
The reality is much more frightening.
Baer mixes on-the-ground sleuthing and interviews with key players to demonstrate that Iran, far from being a wild-eyed rogue state, is a rational actor—one skilled in the game of nations and ruthlessly effective at thwarting Western colonialism. For U.S. policy makers, the choices have narrowed: either cede the world’s most important energy corridors to a nation that can match us militarily with its asymmetric capabilities (which include the use of suicide bombers)—or deal with the devil we know. The alternative—to continue goading Iran into establishing hegemony over the Muslim world—is too chilling to contemplate.
