Trita Parsi

Yeah, exactly.

Back in the 2000s, the Iranians had a deliberate policy that they called simulated irrationality.

in which they want- Simulated irrationality?

It's essentially their version of madman theory, in which they, on the one hand, wanted to make sure that they were seen as somewhat irrational, because if you're irrational, the other side has a greater difficulty calculating what your next move is.

This is again what Nixon did, but they called it simulated irrationality.

At the core of it, they're extremely calculating and extremely rational.

But there was also another problem.

Their experience in the 1800s, particularly with the British interference in Iran,

is that the British never really had to spend much money collecting intelligence in Iran.

The Iranians were just volunteering it all the time.

And it enabled the Brits to really manipulate the system and manipulate Iran.

They didn't even have to colonize the country.

They got exactly what they wanted from Iran without formally colonizing it.

A counter to that, a reaction to that has been for them to try to create as opaque of a system as possible, because that opacity makes it much more difficult for outside countries to be able to interfere, manipulate, or use factions within the Iranian system.

But it's also a negative for them at the end of the day, because the more opaque you are, the more untrustworthy you will be in the eyes of other countries.

you can't really trust a country whose system you don't understand, whose processes.

So whereas it may give them a degree of security in a very bad situation, in the long run, it doesn't provide you with peace and security if everyone around you believe that you're untrustworthy because they don't understand your system.

So the Iranians at some point hopefully will transition away from that, but I don't think they will as long as this enmity between the United States and Iran is as intense as existential as it has been in the last couple of years.

Look, the Iranians ultimately both need it because of sanctions relief.

Their economy was in a terrible shape before this war.