Talking to our global enemies, as Barack Obama has indicated he will do, is a fine and noble idea. But as this essay points out, it’s an idea doomed to fail, at least in the case of Iran. The problem, the author explains, is that Iran’s leaders, nearly three decades after seizing power, still consider themselves to be revolutionaries — and as such, they bring zeal, not practicality, to the negotiating table (if they come to the table at all). As the essay notes: “The reason [talks would surely fail] is that Iran is gripped by a typical crisis of identity that afflicts most nations that pass through a revolutionary experience. The Islamic Republic does not know how to behave: as a nation-state, or as the embodiment of a revolution with universal messianic pretensions. Is it a country or a cause?” It’s an important difference, because countries regularly make concessions in order to get concessions. A cause, however, gives no quarter.