Slowly but surely, policymakers in Washington, as well as the American public at large, are waking up to a new threat. More than a quarter century after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran has emerged as a major player in the Middle East, and a growing challenge to the United States.

In the Persian Gulf, Central Asia and the Caucasus, Iranian policymakers are busy cobbling together alliances intended to exclude and marginalizes the United States and its European allies. In Iraq, Iran is spending millions to perpetuate a lingering insurgency that threatens to transform the former Ba'athist state into another Islamic Republic. And through its nuclear advances, Iran is gaining the capability to catastrophically alter the balance of power far beyond its immediate neighborhood. All of this has been guided by an ambitious strategic agenda designed to make the Iranian regime the center of gravity in the post-Saddam Middle East.

Washington is still woefully unprepared to deal with this mounting peril. Since at least 1997, the U.S. has lacked a coherent policy toward Iran. Instead, it has vacillated between engagement and isolation, and in recent times has simply settled upon political inaction. Such an approach is no longer an option. Iran has become a grave, and growing, danger to U.S. national security, and to American interests in the Middle East.