http://lobelog.com/time-for-maturity-in-the-white-house-attitude-to-iran/#more-33625

Time for Maturity in the White House Attitude to Iran

by Peter Jenkins
The article “The Obama Doctrine” in the April issue of The Atlantic lays bare a striking contrast in the White House’s attitude to two states that pose a challenge to US interests: Iran and China.
This is what Susan Rice says about Iran to the author of the piece, Jeffrey Goldberg:

The Iran deal was never primarily about trying to open a new era of relations between the U.S. and Iran. It was far more pragmatic and minimalist. The aim was very simply to make a dangerous country substantially less dangerous. No one had any expectation that Iran would be a more benign actor.

And this is how President Barack Obama responds to a question about the challenge that China poses:

In terms of traditional great-state relations, I do believe that the relationship between the United States and China is going to be the most critical. If we get that right and China continues on a peaceful rise, then we have a partner that is growing in capability and sharing with us the burdens and responsibilities of maintaining an international order. If China fails; if it is not able to maintain a trajectory that satisfies its population and has to resort to nationalism as an organizing principle; if it feels so overwhelmed that it never takes on the responsibilities of a country its size in maintaining the international order; if it views the world only in terms of regional spheres of influence—then not only do we see the potential for conflict with China, but we will find ourselves having more difficulty dealing with these other challenges that are going to come.

The formula for dealing with China—engagement with a view to managing Chinese nationalism and encouraging Chinese commitment to global norms of behavior and responsibilities—is wise. The minimalist formula being applied to Iran is misguided.
Engagement can result in influence, and influence can produce changes of behavior; the odds are stacked against anything good coming from minimalism.http://lobelog.com/time-for-maturity-in-the-white-house-attitude-to-iran/#more-33625