Our latest Iran Chat is with Dr. David Collier,author of the new book, Democracy and the Nature of American Influence in Iran: 1941-1979. Dr. Collier is also a research consultant in Washington DC and teaches democracy and democratization in Boston University's Washington DC program. The first half of our conversation focuses on Dr. Collier's usage of linkage and leverage to analyze and better understand the history of the period; the second half addresses how his analysis of the history applies to current issues in US-Iran relations and US foreign policy more generally. Dr. Collier's book is being published this month; you can purchase a copy on Amazonor Syracuse University Press. Some excerpts from our conversation are below: Using Linkage and Leverage to Understand American Influence in Iran "Linkage and leverage [first introduced in a book by Levitsky and Way]have often been used to try to understand external pressure in the processes of democratization... I think it's an intere...