Book at a Glance

- Title: Chosen Blindness: Iran's Shadow Empire and The West's Forty-Seven-Year Failure
- Author: Robbie Michaelson
- Publisher: Truth Dispatch LLC
- Formats: Paperback and eBook (ePub)
- Where to buy: Amazon, and other major online retailers, bookstores, and libraries via Ingram distribution
- ISBN (paperback): 9798995817604 (Amazon) & 9798995817611 (IngramSpark)
- ISBN (eBook): 9798995817635 (IngramSpark)
- Page count: 354
- Price: see my note at the bottom — do not publish a price until I confirm
- Publication date: July 1, 2026
- Genre / category: Nonfiction — Middle East politics, foreign policy, national security
- Website: https://robbiemichaelson.com
- Media contact: Robbie Michaelson · meuhud@gmail.com · 1-925-890-3111

Book Descriptions:

Short (≈50 words)
For 47 years, Iran has projected power without fighting a conventional war — through a franchise of proxies it funds, arms, and directs while staying deniable. Chosen Blindness explains the strategy behind four decades of Western failure and asks what the reckonings of 2025–2026 actually changed.

Medium (≈100 words)
Chosen Blindness: Iran's Shadow Empire and The West's Forty-Seven-Year Failure argues that Iran's power was never really about its own army. It is a franchise model — Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, and militias across Iraq and Syria — funded, armed, and directed from Tehran while kept deniable, and embedded in civilian areas so that any Western response carries a moral and political cost. Robbie Michaelson traces how the "cost of acting" always looked higher than the "cost of waiting," how that miscalculation compounded into the far more expensive confrontations of 2025 and 2026, and why a system built to outlast any single leader remains largely intact.

Long (≈250 words)
For 47 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has pursued a deliberate, patient, and sophisticated strategy of indirect power projection. Rather than waging declared conventional war, Iran operates through a "franchise" of proxy groups — Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and militias in Iraq and Syria — providing financial support, advanced weapons technology, and strategic direction while maintaining deniability. By embedding these assets within civilian infrastructure, Iran turns the West's own moral and political constraints into a weapon.

Chosen Blindness lays out the machinery of that strategy and the pattern of Western misjudgment that enabled it. It examines the "compound interest" of failure — the escalation trap in which acting always looked more expensive than waiting — and how that logic produced progressively costlier reckonings. It explains Iran's pursuit of nuclear latency as leverage without the political cost of weaponization, and why even major strikes in 2025 and 2026 could not erase the embedded industrial base and technical knowledge. It follows Iran's global reach, including the 1992 and 1994 Buenos Aires bombings, and the external backstop — China, Russia, Pakistan, and North Korea — that has blunted sanctions and diplomacy alike.

The direct military exchange of 2026 and the destabilization of the regime's leadership mark a watershed. Yet the system's resilience is tied to deep institutional embedding, not any single figure. Whether it can truly change remains the central unresolved question — and the reason this book matters now.

About the Author

Short bio
Robbie Michaelson is a journalist and political analyst with decades of experience in Israeli and international affairs. He has served in the IDF, reported from Europe, and holds a Master's in International Relations from McGill University.

Full bio
Robbie Michaelson is a seasoned journalist and political analyst with decades of experience covering Israeli and international affairs. He has served in the IDF, reported from Europe, and holds a Master's in International Relations from McGill University. His unique life story and deep personal connection to Israel shape the voice of his work, which combines on-the-ground perspective with rigorous, fact-based analysis. Chosen Blindness is his latest book.

Suggested Interview Questions

1. The subtitle calls this a "forty-seven-year failure." Whose failure — and why that
number?
2. You describe Iran's strategy as a "franchise." What does that mean, and how is it
different from simply having allies?
3. How does embedding proxies in civilian areas turn the West's own values into a
weapon?
4. You use the phrase "compound interest of failure." Can you unpack that idea for
listeners?
5. What is "nuclear latency," and why do you argue it can't be bombed away?
6. After the strikes of 2025 and the direct exchange of 2026, many assume the Iran
problem is largely resolved. Why do you disagree?
7. China, Russia, Pakistan, North Korea — how has this external backstop kept sanctions
from working?
8. Most people think of Iran as a Middle East story. Why do the 1992 and 1994 Buenos
Aires bombings matter to your argument?
9. With the regime's leadership destabilized but its institutions intact, can the system
actually change?
10. If you could change one thing about how the West approaches Iran, what would it be?

Key Themes / Talking Points
- Indirect power projection and the proxy "franchise" model
- The escalation trap and the rising cost of inaction
- Nuclear latency as deterrence
- Iran's global campaign and worldwide reach
- Economic resilience through external partners
- Why institutions, not individuals, make the system durable

Downloadable Assets (click the links to download)

- High-resolution front cover — JPG or PNG, at least 1500 px wide

- Author headshot — high resolution

- Press Kit

- Free sample chapter (PDF) —

- Buy links:
Buy on Amazon
Buy on: IngramSpark