The United States will almost certainly have to deter and contain Iran for the foreseeable future - almost like a Cold War on a small scale.  Perhaps a diplomatic breakthrough can be achieved, but if so deterrence and containment will almost certainly have played a role in making that possible. Perhaps the United States will decide that at the end of the day it must live with a nuclear-ready Iran, in which case deterrence and containment of the threat will be essential. Perhaps preemption if Iran's nuclear program will be necessary, but in that case, deterrence and containment will be needed to limit Iranian reactions after the preemption. Because almost any policy option will entail deterrence and containment as an element, the United States should increase its actions to deter and contain Iran without waiting for further diplomatic developments. Please permit me to share some thoughts based on the excellent papers in the volume about how to contain Iran I edited with Henry Sokolski, Getting Ready for a Nuclear-Ready Iran, published in 2005 by the Strategic Studies Institute if the U.S. Army War College.