Kenneth Pollack

Kenneth Pollack, former CIA analyst with 25 years of experience working on the Middle East, discusses America’s intractable problem with Iran, Tehran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, and the decades-long tensions that led us to this point. In Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb, and American Strategy, he lays out key solutions to the Iran nuclear ques­tion, and suggests ways to renew our efforts and to combine negotiations and sanctions.

What's the ripple effect of US action in Syria? Kenneth Pollack is Director of Research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, and the author of the new book Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb and American Strategy. After arguing in favor of the Iraq invasion, he now urges caution in the case of military action in Syria to avoid disrupting negotiations with Iran.