Nathan Gonzalez
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Nathan Gonzalez (born in 1979) is an American scholar, author and journalist based in
Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...
. He is a Middle East analyst with the Foreign Policy in Focus think-tank, and founder of the website NationandState.org, an "open-source foreign policy think tank." He is also a blogger with
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
. His book ''Engaging Iran: The Rise of a Middle East Powerhouse and America's Strategic Choice'', borrows from the foreign policy school of
realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...
. It suggests that a revised
Nixon Doctrine The Nixon Doctrine (also known as the Guam Doctrine) was put forth during a press conference in Guam on July 25, 1969 by President of the United States Richard Nixon and later formalized in his speech on Vietnamization of the Vietnam War on Novembe ...
should be pursued in the Middle East. His book, as well as some of his blog entries, suggest that Iran and the United States share many interests, and that America should actively pursue diplomacy with the Islamic Republic.Nathan Gonzalez: Five Reasons to Engage Iran - Politics on The Huffington Post
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Early life

Gonzalez has a B.A. in political science from
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
and a Master of International Affairs from
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. In 2002, he received a research prize from UCLA. His research "predicted that a U.S. invasion would bring about massive sectarian strife, pervasive
anti-Americanism Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment) is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general. Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Centr ...
in Iraq, and a stronger Iran."


Career


Political activism

According to his biography on ''
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'', Gonzalez has worked on several political campaigns, as co-founder and political director of Latinos for America, and in 2004 as a staffer on Governor
Howard Dean Howard Brush Dean III (born November 17, 1948) is an American physician, author, lobbyist, and retired politician who served as the 79th governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 to 2009 ...
’s presidential campaign in Iowa and New Mexico. A recent blog entry by Gonzalez, titled "On Iraq and Iran, Obama Seems to Get It," suggests a degree of support for the foreign policy of Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
.


Iran nuclear program

In response to the December 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which claimed that Iran had halted its secret nuclear weapons program in 2003, Gonzalez stated the following:
The discussion surrounding the NIE is in many ways a distraction. We're back to the days when we were asking, "Does Saddam have WMD or not?" We rarely asked those days how exactly those WMDs would affect our security in practical terms, or whether they were worth throwing the relative balance of power that existed in the ersianGulf out the window.
With Iran, we need to focus on our shared interests. It is no secret that Iran is one of the few countries in the Middle East that actually wants the government of Iraq, and the majority Shia rule it represents, to succeed. Stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan cannot happen without the active help of Iran, so our focus should be on sitting down and talking to Iran so our troops can come home and our security situation can improve. As we've experienced with the recent breakthroughs in North Korea, diplomacy can make even the most advanced nuclear weapons program a reversible one.
In general, Gonzalez plays down the risk of Iranian nuclear weapons. In a speech before the World Affairs Council of Sacramento, he said: "A lot of anti-Semitic claims that have been made by Iranian President Ahmadinejad scare the crap out of some people. Understandable… But we have to understand that Israel has a nuclear deterrent and Israel sits on Muslim holy ground... no fanatic is going to try to destroy Jerusalem with nuclear weapons. Certainly no ‘fanatic’ from the Islamic Republic of Iran, who has a mansion or owns a luxury condo and wants regime survival..." Gonzalez lays out his case for diplomatic engagement and normalization of relations with Iran through two concepts: Iran's " trajectory of independence," and the Iranian regime's " cult of anti-Americanism."


Trajectory of independence

Gonzalez perceives Iran's modern popular movements, including the 1978-1979 Revolution, as part of a two-pronged trend toward independence from foreign intervention on the one hand, and "independence from unjust rulers" on the other. According to Gonzalez, the phenomenon comprises "roughly the last one and a half centuries of Iranian modern history. This trajectory has led Iran to violently release itself from the shackles of foreign intervention, and has put Iran closer to homegrown democracy than any nation in the neighboring Arab world."''Engaging Iran'', p. 3. According to Gonzalez, the first part of the trajectory (seeking independence from foreign influence) has been achieved, but at the expense of the second goal, that of ridding Iran of autocratic rulers. He considers the trajectory an ongoing phenomenon that will likely lead Iran toward greater freedoms, as long as it is unimpeded by outside powers.


Cult of anti-Americanism

According to Gonzalez, Iran's post-1979 expressions of anti Western sentiment have been part of a "cult of anti-Americanism" that Ayatollah Khomeini put forth as "a regime identifier, using extremism to tell his supporters from his detractors. Much like being a member of the Communist Party in China, taking an anti-American or pro-theocracy line in Iran has served as a calling card to show one's allegiance to Khomeini and the revolution." He goes on to write that the cult of anti-Americanism "continues to serve as a sign of regime affiliation, rather a literal declaration of the regime's foreign policy." Gonzalez writes that in contrast to the government's rhetoric, Iran "has one of the most U.S.-friendly populations in the world; certainly the most pro-American in the Muslim Middle East."


References


External links


Nathan Gonzalez, official website

Foreign Policy in Focus

NationandState.org

The Huffington Post
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Nathan 1979 births Living people American male journalists HuffPost writers and columnists