IRAN! IRAN! IRAN!

Ah, recall the controversy of talks with Iran sans pre-conditions. Those were the days! Now Iranian leadership is reacting to Obama's election as president. The Washington Post has a round-up:

Since 2006, Iran's leaders have called for direct, unconditional talks with the United States to resolve international concerns over their nuclear program. But as an American administration open to such negotiations prepares to take power, Iran's political and military leaders are sounding suddenly wary of President-elect Barack Obama.

...For Iran's leaders, the only state of affairs worse than poor relations with the United States may be improved relations. The Shiite Muslim clerics who rule the country came to power after ousting Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a U.S.-backed autocrat, in their 1979 Islamic revolution. Opposition to the United States, long vilified as the "great Satan" here in Friday sermons, remains one of the main pillars of Iranian politics.

So let's take a state, a theocracy that includes democratic elements. Let's say it's dependent on oil for its economy, has pretensions of being regional hegemon, and has been launching a nuclear development program. It finds not one, but two neighboring countries occupied by an unpopular foreign power. It demands bilateral negotiations, knowing that the administration of that foreign power will refuse. It builds regional popularity and domestic legitimacy.

But now that there's a new administration, pledged to end the most controversial war and willing to meet with that state's leaders. Their bluff called, the states leaders bluster -- but will anyone in their own country or region trust them if the foreign power actually changes its policies? They won't. They look like the bully now.

Look, it's early -- pre-inauguration! -- to say anything positive or negative about Obama's foreign policy. But what we're seeing in Iran is an example of the fundamental change in dynamics that a liberal foreign policy provides. The initiative has been taken from Iran and given back to the United States, which has a real opportunity to improve its relationship, not only with that state but with others in the region -- thus protecting its critical national security interests. See this list as well.

--Tim Fernholz