Worlds Apart

Malcolm Byrne is an award-winning author and editor of several books on US-Iran relations. Since 1997, he has run the nongovernmental National Security Archive's multinational Iran documentation project, based at The George Washington University, and has made numerous trips to the Islamic Republic. Kian Byrne coordinates the Middle East documentation project at the History and Public Policy Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where he also co-edits and contributes to the program's blog on new archival findings, Sources & Methods. He has researched and travelled through much of the region, including Iran.

• How to Read a Declassified Document; Introduction; Chronology of events; 1. Blindsided: confronting the revolution and the hostage crisis, 1977–1981; 2. Turmoil in the Gulf: the Iran-Iraq war and the spread of radical Islam, 1980–1989; 3. Leaps of faith: from containment to dialogue, 1990–2000; 4. Missed opportunities: from 9/11 to Iraq to the nuclear impasse, 2001–2008; 5. Breakthrough: long road to a short-lived deal, 2009–2016; Epilogue. Back to basics: déjà vu after four decades, 2017–2018; Conclusion.

'Four decades ago Iran and the US substituted a close relationship for marked hostility. Byrne and Byrne have brought together in this book a collection of key documents that mark the major turning points - and the viewpoints of the principal actors - of these tumultuous decades. Worlds Apart, the title the authors have chosen for their fascinating collection, is strikingly apt. Their book is a page-turner and a significant contribution to the study of US-Iranian relations since the Islamic revolution.' Haleh Esfandiari, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars