I didn't used to think this, but I've increasingly come to believe that Iran's high-level "elite" debates about the US and American politics reflect a more sophisticated understanding of America than the corresponding US media, think tank, and policy debates reflect of Iran. This is especially apparent in Iran's rapidly evolving media and analytical landscape, which anyone following it closely can see: from select state television programs to online political programs and the emerging Iranian think tank/public analysis scene. Why this is the case is a longer story for another post. But it speaks to serious problems in the US foreign policy establishment, and across the political spectrum too: the funding landscape, warped institutional priorities and gatekeeping, ideological hostility, and a pervasive confirmation bias that filters out inconvenient truths. Needless to say, none of this is conducive to effective foreign policy, toward Iran or anywhere else. And this asymmetry in US-Iran understanding is increasingly striking and consequential.