Simultaneously courting the West and expanding its influence beyond its borders could work in the short-term. But in the short-term only.
Simultaneously courting the West and expanding its influence beyond its borders could work in the short-term. But in the short-term only.
The IAEA’s final report left many observers dissatisfied: reactions to it tended to reflect people’s preexisting attitudes toward the issue.
Clearly, there is a danger in the prospects of a bomb controlled by such Iranian hardliners. However, there are those in the United States who continue to apply a punitive calculus formulated on every perceived lie and outright deception by the Iranian government over the last 30 years — of which there admittedly have been many — as justification to force a no domestic enrichment agreement. This position is wrong, indefensible, and risks diplomatic failure.
Foreign Policy Association’s 2013 “Great Decisions in Foreign Policy” on PBS, a series of half hour documentaries providing background information for and evaluation of leading contemporary issues, airs this March. The forthcoming series includes a segment on Iran’s controversial nuclear ambitions. “Red Line: Iran, Israel, and the Bomb” begins with the same powerful introduction as […]
On March 5, 1957, under the Atoms for Peace Program, Iran started its nuclear program with the United States’ assistance. Initiated during the Eisenhower administration and reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the relationship aided Iran’s quest for peaceful atomic energy. In 1968, Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), an international agreement created to […]
On November 27 the Associated Press published a diagram it received from officials, “of a country critical of Iran’s atomic program.” It allegedly calculates the explosive force of a nuclear weapon, which the sources have labelled, “a key step in developing such arms.” It has been touted as proof of Iran’s nuclear aims and purportedly […]
In his most recent, and to my mind, revealing examination of the evolution of the IAEA safeguards regime, Carnegie Senior Associate Mark Hibbs lays out some critical issues facing the evolution of the Agency’s central nuclear watchdog function. What he finds is a swirling morass of political jockeying, an ongoing struggle by an agency struggling […]
The year was 1967 , ten years after the United States and Imperial Iran signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement as part of America’s Atoms for Peace program. At the time Iran debuted its first nuclear facility in Tehran, a 5-megawatt nuclear research reactor, supplied by the United States and fueled by highly enriched uranium. Fast […]
With talks between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iranian officials underway, it is appropriate to assess the dynamics between Iran and the international community and how recent political changes may alter future negotiations. Although the IAEA’s mission statement declares the organization an “independent intergovernmental, science and technology-based organization,” it is formally part of […]
My colleague Andreas Persbo, the director of the UK-based VERTIC, has recently highlighted the existence of a very useful resource provided by the IAEA. The page, which includes a newly-released document entitled Guidance for States Implementing Comprehensive Safeguards Agreements, helps to shed light on the ” how, what, when and why of practical safeguards implementation”. While […]
Just as the self-congratulatory communiques have been issued in Seoul and pats on the back for a job well done have been distributed, Steven E. Miller has lobbed a wrench in the works. In his very timely essay for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, entitled Nuclear Collisions: Discord, Reform & the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime, Miller describes […]
US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s assertion that Israel is preparing to attack Iran in either April, May, or June has added more speculation and fuel to the sensitive situation surrounding Iran’s nuclear program. David Ignatius’ article in The Washington Post provides us with a bit of evidence that Israel may be preparing for war, […]
Since last week’s release of the latest IAEA report on Iran’s nuke program, I have seen a schism between those who believe the report is noteworthy and those who think it is simply more of the same from the Agency. I fall firmly into the former camp. As I noted in my previous post, the […]
Further to the point I made in yesterday’s post regarding the changed tone in the most recent Iran safeguards report, Reuters has run a piece today which expands a bit on the Amano versus ElBaradei contrast regarding Iran. Describing the differences in style between the two IAEA DGs, Fredrik Dahl and Sylvia Westall write that […]
I’d like to add my two Rial to the din of commentary on the just-released IAEA report on Iranian nuclear activities. There are a number of reasons why this report is notable, despite the fact that it uses much information that has been obtained previously and that most of the reported weapons development work took […]