...The Iranian Nuclear Dilemma Jonathan Metcalfe International Relations Research Paper Nathan Jones University of San Diego 5 December 2011 Since 2006 Iran has been making a serious push to gain nuclear weapons. Iran has been disregarding President Obama’s requests to cease the nuclear weapons program that is becoming a larger threat to international security. A realist would see the Iranian nuclear struggle as a push to challenge the power of the United States. Countries that have nuclear weapons legally through the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are major world powers in regards to economic, military, and global influence. Realism suggests that if Iran were to obtain nuclear weapons that they could create hegemonic stability in the Middle East. Throughout history the Middle East has been a very unstable area. In recent years there has been effort to overthrow the dictatorial governments in the area, which created political unrest. Iran’s push to obtain nuclear technology could possibly bring peace to that area. Iran’s nuclear program has been developing since the 1960’s and was recently revived in 2006. Iran plans to have the nuclear technology ready by 2015. Iran could become a global superpower in years to come. Venezuela, Russia, the AQ Kahn network, and several other countries contribute to the Iranian development of nuclear weapons. These countries have aligned, and exchange information about WMD’s. Although aligning with...
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...Iran and the Western World Sanctions on Nuclear Enrichment and Weapons development. The challenges between Iran and Western World started after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the United States imposed sanctions against Iran and expanded them in 1995 to include firms dealing with the Iranian government. In 2006, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1696 and imposed sanctions after Iran refused to suspend its uranium enrichment program. U.S. sanctions initially targeted investments in oil, gas and petrochemicals, exports of refined petroleum products, and business dealings with the Iranian revolutionary guard corps. UN sanctions against Iran The UN Security Council passed a number of resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran, following the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors regarding Iran's non-compliance with its safeguards agreement. These are the sanctions below that were passed on Iran United Nations Security Council Resolution 1696 – was passed on 31 July 2006. Demanded that Iran suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities and threatened sanctions. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737 – was passed on 23 December 2006 in response to the proliferation risks presented by the Iranian nuclear program and, in this context, by Iran's continuing failure to meet the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors and to comply with the provisions of Security Council resolution 1696 in...
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...about the developing Iranian nuclear capability. Through a variety of sources, the CIA believes it has access inside a heretofore unknown Iranian nuclear facility, deep underground and with very limited access, even by Iranian officials. The CIA's asset has the capability to disrupt the Iranian operation, either by means of planting a virus in the facility's computer system or by causing a disruption through the planting of a bomb or similar object. (LENGTH 4 - 5 pages doublespaced PLUS citations) Answer: the nuclear program of Iran was launched in 1950’s in collaboration with the United States of America as part of the Atoms of Peace program. During the Iran-Iraq war in 1980’s, over 100,000 Iranian troops and civilians became the victims of chemical weapons. So Iran is has a first- hand knowledge of the effects of Weapons of Mass destruction. It has signed different treaties such as Nuclear-non Proliferation Treaty to show its concern about the risks of WMD. But now the true intentions of Iran on developing the nuclear capability are unknown. The U.S. intelligence agencies assessed that if Iran pursue to achieve the chemical weapons capability again it would be unlikely that it achieve this capability before 2013 or it might extends till 2015.( US Intelligence,2009). Iran nuclear program includes several research sites, two uranium mines, a research reactor and uranium enrichment facilities that include three known uranium enrichment plants. The Iranian stance on the development...
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...Iran’s Nuclear Weapons: Realist and Idealist Paradigms Student name: Institution: Course name: Ttor name: Due Date: Iran’s Nuclear Weapons: Realist and Idealist Paradigms This paper will discuss the impending nuclear agreement with Iran reflecting on the realistic and idealistic paradigms in international affairs. Observations of the relationship will firmly accommodate the two paradigms. The aim will be to elaborate clearly the use of international law and organizations on all the paradigms in connection to international security and inter-state relationships. Realist Paradigm Realism is mounted on the notion that, world politics is driven by competitive self-interests and a struggle for power that is aimed at preserving and improving military, security and economic interests. To realists, the presence of war is essential in a state system as it clearly underlines the hypothesis of international conflict. Such states are characterized by chaos and revolutions, which are directly linked to vested national interests, distribution of power and conflict. a. Political realism The Iranian nuclear program has attracted much attention within the international arena due to the interest devoted by nation’s states on their foreign policies (Bowen & Brewer2011). In international relations, realists and idealists paradigms are important as they concern themselves with substantive issues affecting nations and states...
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...Israeli Test on Worm Called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay By WILLIAM J. BROAD, JOHN MARKOFF and DAVID E. SANGER Ralph Langner, an independent computer security expert, solved Stuxnet. The Dimona complex in the Negev desert is famous as the heavily guarded heart of Israel’s never-acknowledged nuclear arms program, where neat rows of factories make atomic fuel for the arsenal. Over the past two years, according to intelligence and military experts familiar with its operations, Dimona has taken on a new, equally secret role — as a critical testing ground in a joint American and Israeli effort to undermine Iran’s efforts to make a bomb of its own. Behind Dimona’s barbed wire, the experts say, Israel has spun nuclear centrifuges virtually identical to Iran’s at Natanz, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium. They say Dimona tested the effectiveness of the Stuxnet computer worm, a destructive program that appears to have wiped out roughly a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and helped delay, though not destroy, Tehran’s ability to make its first nuclear arms. “To check out the worm, you have to know the machines,” said an American expert on nuclear intelligence. “The reason the worm has been effective is that the Israelis tried it out.” Though American and Israeli officials refuse to talk publicly about what goes on at Dimona, the operations there, as well as related efforts in the United States, are among the newest and strongest clues suggesting...
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...The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iranian Nuclear Deal in vernacular, that was signed earlier this year is the culmination of a decades-long diplomatic arm wrestle between Iran and the United Nations. Iran, the European Union and the permanent members of the UN Security Council collectively referred to as P5+1 (United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany), reached a final agreement on July 14, 2015 in Vienna after many rounds of negotiations. The deal is meant to curb Iran's nuclear program, which has been a prolonged international safety concern, in return for incremental relief from the UN sanctions that have economically isolated Iran for years. The JCPOA requires that Iran cut its stock of enriched uranium by 98%, enrich uranium up to only 3.67%, and eliminate 2/3 of its current centrifuges. Iran cannot build new uranium-enrichment facilities, and nuclear activities will be restricted to one facility. Additionally, Iran has given the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) extensive access to its nuclear facilities for inspections. The physical requirements will last 15 years, while monitoring parameters will be in effect for 25 years. As Iran is confirmed to be in compliance with the deal, sanctions will be lifted and Iran will receive $100 billion of its frozen assets. Hassan Rouhani, the current Iranian president, and his administration hope the agreement will revitalize the country's economy. In exchange, the other parties predict...
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...warfare policies in the international realm, which increases the pressure to establish rules of governance in cyber space. The following essay will be concerned with the Stuxnet worm and its role in Operation Olympic Games, which targeted the Iranian nuclear power plant Natanz. The analyses will provide an overview of the attack, including technical comprehension of the attack, and also looks at the attack in term of its political consequences. The first section will discuss the origins of the attack, building on Ralph Langner’s article published in ‘IEEE Software’. Even though numerous cyber offences took place before, it will explain what made Stuxnet stand out. The second part of the essay analyses the political perspective of the attack and two competing theories explaining the presence of malware in the nuclear facilities. The following section analyses the role of cyber warfare as viable military strategy. It will be argued that cyber offences appear to be more applicable as an offensive rather than defensive strategy, due to the attacker’s advantage. The last part of the essay will discuss if it is possible to prevent an advanced persistent attack like Stuxnet. Origins of the attacks Since the 1980’s, Iran’s nuclear power program has been continuously questioned by the International Energy Agency as well as the United Nations and the international...
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...Catherine A. Theohary Analyst in National Security Policy and Information Operations December 9, 2010 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R41524 CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress The Stuxnet Computer Worm: Harbinger of an Emerging Warfare Capability Summary In September 2010, media reports emerged about a new form of cyber attack that appeared to target Iran, although the actual target, if any, is unknown. Through the use of thumb drives in computers that were not connected to the Internet, a malicious software program known as Stuxnet infected computer systems that were used to control the functioning of a nuclear power plant. Once inside the system, Stuxnet had the ability to degrade or destroy the software on which it operated. Although early reports focused on the impact on facilities in Iran, researchers discovered that the program had spread throughout multiple countries worldwide. From the perspective of many national security and technology observers, the emergence of the Stuxnet worm is the type of risk that threatens to cause harm to many activities deemed critical to the basic functioning of modern society. The Stuxnet worm covertly attempts to identify and exploit equipment that controls a nation’s critical infrastructure. A successful attack by a software application such as the Stuxnet worm could result in manipulation of control system code to the point of inoperability or long-term damage. Should...
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...Netanyahu, John Kerry (Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson/AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Michel Euler/Photo montage by Salon) Many readers will have seen Benjamin Netanyahu’s sentimentally charged but otherwise empty speech to Congress on Tuesday. If you missed it, you can watch it here or read the transcript here. There is a lot to consider in this presentation, even if—or partly because—it was a celebration of the nothing-new. To me, the key to the occasion lies in one especially revealing trick the Israeli leader tried. This was the staged presence of Elie Wiesel in the gallery. The novelist, Nobel-winner and concentration camp survivor was strategically placed in the speaker’s box next to Netanyahu’s wife, Sara. After a reference to “a nuclear-armed Iran whose unbridled aggression will inevitably lead to war,” Netanyahu played his card. “My friend, standing up to Iran is not easy,” he began this passage. “Standing up to dark and murderous regimes never is. [Pause for effect.] With us today is Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel.” Applause. Then, gesturing to the balcony, this: “Elie, your life and work inspires to give meaning to the words, ‘never again.’ [More applause.] And I wish I could promise you, Elie, that the lessons of history have been learned. I can only urge the leaders of the world not to...
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...and China plus Germany) along with the European Union, together they came up with an agreement to thwart the Iran Nuclear Programme. The document was published by the U.S. Department of State titled Parameters for a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran's Nuclear Program. The agreement itself is very controversial, understandably so however because the agreement is 159 pages in it’s entirety and certainly becomes quite technical very fast. Through this essay I will be reviewing the the details and the politics surrounding the Nuclear Treaty with Iran and asserting my position on it. To review, the deal outlines what measures will specifically be made to prevent Iran from making a nuclear bomb and to avoid a war; and to protect potentially many thousands of lives and dollars. Some of the pros of this agreement are that firstly, the deal will keep Iran from producing enough material (enriched uranium, centrifuges, and plutonium) for a nuclear weapon for at least the next 10 years, and impose the watchful eye of the IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency) to provide inspections of Iranian facilities, including their military sites. It also provides a chance to lessen international tensions between Iran and the US, who loving refer the other as “the leading state sponsor of terrorism”, and “the Great Satan”. From the Iranian perspective this deal will also allow the country to reintegrate politically and economically with the rest of the...
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...A Declaration of Cyber-War | Vanity Fair April 2011 Stuxnet Worm Last summer, the world’s top software-security experts were panicked by the discovery of a drone-like computer virus, radically different from and far more sophisticated than any they’d seen. The race was on to figure out its payload, its purpose, and who was behind it. As the world now knows, the Stuxnet worm appears to have attacked Iran’s nuclear program. And, as Michael Joseph Gross reports, while its source remains something of a mystery, Stuxnet is the new face of 21st-century warfare: invisible, anonymous, and devastating. By Michael Joseph GrossPhotograph by Jonas Fredwall Karlsson EMail GAME OF SHADOWS Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder and C.E.O. of Kaspersky Lab—a Moscow-based computer-security company and an early investigator of Stuxnet—photographed on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, near the Kremlin. All over Europe, smartphones rang in the middle of the night. Rolling over in bed, blinking open their eyes, civilians reached for the little devices and, in the moment of answering, were effectively drafted as soldiers. They shook themselves awake as they listened to hushed descriptions of a looming threat. Over the next few days and nights, in mid-July of last year, the ranks of these sudden draftees grew, as software analysts and experts in industrial-control systems gathered in makeshift war rooms in 3 of 14 6/21/2014 10:02 PM A Declaration of Cyber-War | Vanity Fair file:///C:/Users/malbun/Desktop/A...
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...UN of Capital Punishment Fellow delegates and honorable chair. My delegation is that the capital punishment it is a fair thing and an unfair thing too, incase of what was the problem. For an Example Lets say if someone stole that doesn’t have to be a capital punishment but if he kills someone that needs a capital punishment. Not always it necessary to do the capital punishment because it is a violent idea. Some people like that idea and some doesn’t but its kind of the way so that know that what they did was very wrong that damage other people, because sometimes they do it for fun or they don’t accept their mistakes. My delegation is that we are in seriously problems of stilling, shooting and the persons that are drug dealer with the Z’s they are the principal ones that are on top of the main problems. Does persons the ones that are drug dealer and the Z must get a consequence and it is the capital punishment. My city is supporting and getting scared of those problems that are happening near to their home or near a friend or familiar or not even get to there house because the shooting is near their house, on those cases they are needed a capital punishment. My country has gotten to a solution. It is that the persons or policeman’s that are going to do the capital punishment to a persons just that he will make sure of where he is going to do it and if the man that acted on a bad form needs a capital punishment depending on what was the bad thing he made to the...
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...Middle East 14 March 2013 Last updated at 19:41 GMT Iran nuclear weapon over a year away, says Obama US President Barack Obama has told an Israeli television channel it would take Iran "over a year or so" to develop a nuclear weapon. In an interview with Channel 2 he said he did not want to "cut it too close" and declined to rule out the possibility of military action. Iran's nuclear programme is expected to be high on the agenda when Mr Obama visits Israel later this month. Tehran insists it is refining uranium only for peaceful energy purposes. But Israel has repeatedly threatened a military strike if Iran appears to be on the verge of obtaining a bomb. Washington is pushing for more time to allow diplomacy and economic sanctions to run their course. "We think that it would take over a year or so for Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon but obviously we don't want to cut it too close," Mr Obama said. "My message (to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) will be the same as before: if we can resolve it diplomatically, that's a more lasting solution. But if not, I continue to keep all options on the table." Asked if an attack on Iran's nuclear sites was a realistic option he said: "When I say that all options are on the table, all options are on the table and the United States obviously has significant capabilities. "But our goal here is to make sure that Iran does not possess a nuclear weapon that could threaten Israel or could trigger an arms race in the region...
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...Will A Nuclear Deal with Iran Impact the Iranian Regime’s Behavior and Change the Regional Dynamic in the Middle East? Mike Maleki December 06, 2014 Illustrated by Paul Combs of the Tribune Media Services. Many in the West have expressed concern about a possible failure of the P5+1 countries – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany – to secure a comprehensive deal with Iran on its controversial nuclear program. These concerns, however, represent a somewhat myopic view of the bigger picture concerning Iran’s nuclear ambitions. A thorough look at the Iranian regime’s domestic and foreign policies reveals that a nuclear deal would, in fact, have very limited effect on the behavior of Iran’s authoritarian theocracy and change very little about the dynamics in the 1 Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution changed the balance of power in the Middle East. Following the revolution, Iran, a pillar of the US’ regional Cold War policy, became increasingly isolated as it quarreled with its majority Sunni neighbors for influence and sought to export its Islamic revolution as far as to Europe.1 However, Iran attempted to overcome its isolation as a Shiite and majority Persian state by tempting the aspirations of the region’s Arab population with its support for radical anti-Israel/anti-US regional movements, thus successfully establishing a web of proxies and surrogates – the so-called “axis of resistance.” Furthermore, since 2003, the Iranian...
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...A Nuclear Iran and Proliferation It has been argued that the Israeli fear of a nuclear Iran is more due to the resultant threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East than an Iranian NW per se.23 The revolutions that have swept across the region over the year or so will conceivably lead to greater control of Arab foreign policy by the Arab street, thus animosity towards Israel will appear in future decision-making. Israeli apprehension is born out of the theory that an Iranian NW will, by way of the security concept mentioned previously, lead to proliferation in the region. Combine greater regional acrimony toward the Jewish state with an Arab nuclear capability and Israeli fears are comprehensible. As Kenneth Waltz has argued, history demonstrates that the cascade concept (a state will rapidly construct NWs to counter strategic imbalance created by a hostile neighbour’s nuclear arming) is flawed. His argument is further consolidated by virtue of the fact that the fear of rapid nuclear proliferation has been vociferously audible in Western media almost every year since the 1960s, yet the world possesses only nine nuclear powers.24 Leaving this convincing argument to one side, would a nuclear Iran provoke proliferation in the Middle East? Sagan’s aforementioned three theories assume that a state has the ability and the opportunity to develop a weapon.25 By inserting such a caveat we can eliminate numerous states from this predictive analysis of proliferation in the...
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