Iran: What Should the United States Do?

Prof. John Radsan discusses what he describes as Iran’s “grave threat” to American security and national interests.

U.S. policy toward Iran, he writes, should “go over to the dark side” and entail a “multi-layered plan of aggressive actions.” But unlike those who call for military strikes, “our most aggressive actions — for now — should focus on covert actions by the CIA.” Such actions, he continues, “could increase support for dissidents and separatist forces within Iran, thereby attacking the infrastructure of the regime’s global sponsorship of terrorism and other disruptive activities.”

A member of the faculty at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Professor Radsan is founder and director of the National Security Forum on campus. Created only in 2005, the Forum is grounded in the premise that “while a democracy must always balance individual liberty and public safety, current events have intensified the nation’s need to openly discuss these issues.”

John Radsan is a former federal prosecutor and assistant general counsel to the CIA. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he’s quoted routinely on national security issues in the likes of the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC News, and National Public Radio.