Berman, Ilan (Ilan I. Berman)

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Berman, Ilan (Ilan I. Berman)

PERSONAL:

Education: American University, M.A.; Washington College of Law, J.D.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—berman@afpc.org.

CAREER:

American University, School of International Service, Washington, DC, adjunct professor; American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC, vice president for policy. Consultant, including to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and U.S. Department of Defense.

WRITINGS:

Tehran Rising: Iran's Challenge to the United States, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2005.

(Editor, with J. Michael Waller) Dismantling Tyranny: Transitioning beyond Totalitarian Regimes, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2006.

(Editor) Taking on Tehran: Strategies for Confronting the Islamic Republic, Lexington Books (Lanham, MD), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Financial Times, Asian Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal Europe, Middle East Quarterly, Washington Times, Jerusalem Post, Strategic Review, International Herald Tribune, and National Interest.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ilan Berman is an expert on security in the regions of the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Russian Federation. In his collection of articles and new writings titled Tehran Rising: Iran's Challenge to the United States, he contends that with the revolution led by Iyatolah Khomeini, Iran initiated an Islamist war against the United States decades before the events of 9/11. Berman writes of an "informal accord" between Iran and al Qaeda and of Iran's nuclear weapons program, which he says includes many sites and the capability to produce enriched uranium sufficient to manufacture fifteen to twenty weapons a year. Berman suggests steps that should be taken to diffuse Iran's nuclear threat, including the multinational Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and closer ties with Russia. He also suggests that regime change could be accomplished based on the fact that most Iranians are young, poor, and pro-American.

Berman points out that we have limited military options because bombing of Iranian nuclear positions would result in retaliation against both the United States and Israel. Syria is protected because it signed a pact with Iran in 2004, in which Iran agreed to defend it against the United States and Israel. Carlin Romano noted in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "To a certain extent, Tehran Rising thus mandates the blurb, ‘Read this book and weep.’"

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America's Intelligence Wire, August 21, 2006, "Interview with Ilan Berman."

California Bookwatch, May, 2006, review of Tehran Rising: Iran's Challenge to the United States. National Interest, fall, 2005, Richard Weitz, review of Tehran Rising, p. 138.

Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 2006, Carlin Romano, review of Tehran Rising.

Reference & Research Book News, May, 2006, review of Dismantling Tyranny: Transitioning Beyond Totalitarian Regimes.

Weekly Standard, January 16, 2006, Peter Hannaford, review of Tehran Rising.