Looking at the Middle East today, it seems that the loss of Iran was a game-changing event. It forced the United States to cross a line into territory which it has been unable to step back from due to the ongoing geopolitical centrality of the region.

Stephen McGlinchey is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of the West of England, Bristol. He the author of Richard Nixon’s Road to Tehran: The Making of the U.S.-Iran Arms Agreement of May 1972 and lead editor of e-International Relations.