Contemporary International Problems
Professor Samad Hafezi
What is the U.S. policy toward Iran’s nuclear program? Does it even exist? Has the U.S. taken a stance on what should be done and how to do it? After careful research I have still not been able to answer any of these questions. Let’s take a look at what the sources say and attempt to determine exactly where we are in 2010 on this very issue.
Iran’s nuclear program goes all the way back to the era of the Shah and the plans for 20 nuclear reactors. It wasn’t until the bombing of the Persian Gulf that production was halted, but not completely. Their program today is managed by their President, Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Part of the uproar is that even though Iran is open to inspection of their “legal” nuclear program, they have a covert operation underway that they declare is for some sort of energy program for civilians. This seems to be a hot topic in the U.S. today. Since 1987 the U.S. has been issuing charges and regulatory guidance to Iran about their nuclear program and uranium enrichment operations. We have done everything from banning imports and goods to freezing personal assets of those individuals directly involved in the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Yet today we are still at a loss for how to handle this issue. The U.S. has more than enough issues directly tied to Iran’s nuclear program. Their ultimate concern is nuclear proliferations, which means Iran is disbursing their nuclear weapons to different nations that are not recognized by the U.S. as nuclear weapons States which are identified by a Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. However, the U.S. has still failed to take direct measure against Iran for their noncompliance. Several meetings have occurred between Iran and the U.S. but none have rendered any results according to U.S. government officials.
The U.S. has placed many tactics in place regarding Iran’s nuclear program such as various legal instruments established to pressure Iran to abide by their nonproliferation commitment, while tolerating independent authentication of its nuclear program targets. The U.S. placed several “resolutions” in place to reposte Iran’s nuclear program. I think we should have named it something else considering it hasn’t resolved anything quite yet. The one thing that has been done is the retreat from all negotiations that President Barak Obama has declared during his current administration.
As a part of the U.S. attempts to control the situation, many Nonproliferation Regimes have been initiated including the following:
-Proliferation Security Initiative
-Nuclear Suppliers Group
-Zannger Committee
-Missile Technology Control Regime
-Wassenaar Arragement
These initiatives were launched to slow down or annihilate the trafficking of Weapons of Mass Destruction. The U.N. truly supports this mission and it’s believed that the U.S. and its associates should diplomatically discreetly support all Iranian contrariety congregates that oppose terrorism and endorse democracy by advertising their activities abroad and within Iran. The U.S. should provide these associates with foundational instruction obliquely through NGOs. Though I don’t believe this effort would do anything but anger the Iranians and cause more upheaval. The U.S. has entered into collaborative defense arrangements with the neighbors of Iran while creating a warlike position in nearby regions. “In 2000, the U.S. joined Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Egypt and Jordan to form the Cooperation Defense Initiative (CDI) as a mechanism for cooperation on active defense, passive defense, shared early warning systems, consequence management and medical countermeasures.” (Zarif, 2009) All-in-all I am still baffled at where we are 33 years from where we started. How would you handle it?
References
Bibliography
Afrasiabi, K. L. (2006). Iran's Nuclear Program: Debating Facts Versus Fiction . Charleston: Booksurge Publishing.
Phillips, J. (2006, June 2). U.S. Policy and Iran's Nuclear Challenge. Retrieved August 29, 2010, from The Heritage Foundation: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Lecture/US-Policy-and-Irans-Nuclear-Challenge
Wikipedia. (2010, August 18). Nuclear Proliferation. Retrieved August 29, 2010, from Wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_proliferation
Zarif, M. (2009, July 21). U.S. Policy Toward Iran's Nuclear Program. U.S. Policy Overview, U.S. Policy , p. 20.
