Author Stephen Kinzer Discusses ‘RESET: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future’ June 17 at Oak Park Library

After spending two weeks in Iran recently, Kinzer says that "Pro-American sentiment among the people on the street is amazingly strong. This could be a huge strategic advantage for the U.S." At the same time, Kinzer says that American support of the sanctions against Iran are not the path for our country to take.
 

Our reaction "makes me believe that some people are still on a warpath with Iran. Nobody believes sanctions will really work -- and when they don't, those that want war will say we tried everything -- and that didn't work." Instead, our approach to the compromise worked out with Turkey and Brazil should have been greeted by the U.S. with a "Let's sit down and talk. Turkey has long been a principal promoter of dialog and compromise, says Kinzer.
 
"Unfortunately, the U.S. is not ready to take advice from another country on the Middle East."

color event photos courtesy of Deborah Dowley Preiser

 
After his lecture, many readers lined up to buy books from Augie Aleksy, owner of Centuries & Sleuths Book Store, and share thoughts with Kinzer.
 

Author Stephen Kinzer Discusses ‘RESET: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future’ June 17 at Oak Park Library

Former New York Times foreign correspondent Stephen Kinzer will discuss his newest book, “RESET: Iran, Turkey and America’s Future” on Thursday, June 17, at 7 p.m. at the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake Street. The program is free and open to the public. Centuries and Sleuths Book Store will offer RESET for sale at the program.

What can the United States do to help realize its dream of a peaceful, democratic Middle East? Award-winning foreign correspondent Stephen Kinzer offers a surprising answer in his newly published book – RESET: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future. Kinzer argues that Iran and Turkey are the two countries in the region which are America's logical partners in the twenty-first century.

Kinzer bases this new "power triangle" on the similarities between the countries. They share strategic interests, like a stable Iraq, stable Afghanistan, and stable Pakistan; and their people also share a desire for democratic values. He also suggests that the United States reshape relations with its two traditional Middle East allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

A master storyteller, Kinzer summons the logic of history to address the future. With an eye for grand characters and illuminating historical detail, Kinzer introduces the reader to larger-than-life figures, like a Nebraska schoolteacher who became a martyr to democracy in Iran, a Turkish radical who transformed his country and Islam forever, and a colorful parade of princes, politicians, women of the world, spies, oppressors, liberators, and dreamers.

Stephen Kinzer is the author of All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, (2003) in which he examined the CIA-sponsored coup that removed the democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, from power. After nationalizing the oil industry, which had previously been run by the British, Massadegh became the target of the CIA’s first successful major operation to overthrow another government.

Prior to that, Kinzer wrote Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds (2001), in which he shared both history and contemporary life in Turkey after serving as the NYT first bureau chief in Istanbul.

Kinzer lived in Oak Park while he served as the national cultural correspondent for the New York Times and later served as a visiting professor at Northwestern University and Dominican University. Kinzer last year returned to his home base of Boston where he teaches international relations at Boston University. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and a columnist for The Guardian.

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