Iran's Nuclear Program: A Study in Proliferation and Rollback

ISBN-13: 9783319441191 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 272 str.

Farhad Rezaei

Opis

The author presents an account of little-understood episodes in the history of the nuclear project, including an analysis of the decision making process of the "nuclear sanctum." A full account is given of the organizations that ran the project and a listing of the suppliers that made the project possible.

Spis treści

CHAPTER 1 PROLIFERATION, SANCTIONS AND ROLLBACK: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

1

The Puzzle of Iran’s Proliferation: Optimists vs. Pessimists 

2

Rolling Back Iran’s Nuclear Program? Sanction Advocates vs. Sanction Skeptics

6

Iran as a Non-Unitary Actor: The Negotiated Political Order 

9

Methodology and Structure

12

CHAPTER 2 THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION AND THE BOMB: QURAN MEETS REALISM                        

                                                                     

16

The Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic: The High Cost of Exporting the Revolution   

                                                                                                                                                17

The Quranic Way Of War: Is There Room For Nuclear Weapons?

                                     

28

Bushehr and Beyond: Building a Case for Nuclear Weapons

33

CHAPTER 3 RAFSANJANI’S NUCLEAR TAKEOFF: TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE WEAK NON-PROLIFERATION REGIME

46

Hiding in Plain Site: The Legitimate Infrastructure of an Illicit Program 47

Building its Own Scientific Cadre: Iran as a Nuclear Science Beacon to the World? 

57

The Pakistani Connection: Making the Dream of a Muslim Bomb a Doable Reality? 

61

Shopping in the A. Q. Khan Nuclear Bazaar: the Centrifuge Blueprint Purchase

66

Beyond the “Khan Bazaar”: Making Pakistani Proliferation Official? 

72

The North Korean Connection: Shopping For Missiles and More 

76

Evading the Nonproliferation Regime: Complexity and Dissimulation 84

CHAPTER 4

KHATAMI’S DIALOGUE AMONG CIVILIZATIONS AND THE NUCLEAR “DISAPPEARANCE ACT”

100

Khatami’s Vision of Foreign Policy: The Meaning of the Dialogue among Civilizations

100

On Khatami’s Watch: Speeding Up the Nuclear Project 112

The MEK‘s Disclosure and its Aftermath: Adjusting Tactics without Changing Strategy

117

Khatami: Out of the Loop or Part of the Deception Project?

132

Slow-Playing the West While Developing the Nuclear Project 139

CHAPTER 5 AHMADINEJAD’S PRINCIPALIST DOCTRINE: SOVEREIGN RIGHTS TO A NUCLEAR ARSENAL

156

The Nuclear Project in Ahmadinejad’s World View: Nuclear Equality for All

168

The NPT Dilemma in Tehran: To Stay or Exit? 172

Security Council Resolutions: Raising the Cost of the Nuclear Project

186

CHAPTER 6     INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS: THE HIGH COST OF PROLIFERATION IN A NEOPATRIMONIAL REGIME

209

Sanctions and More Sanctions: Splitting the Iranian Elites                   

209

The 2009 Election As A Referendum On Sanctions: Why Did The Supreme Leader Side With Ahmadinejad?

216

O autorze

Farhad Rezaei is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute (ORMER), Sakarya University, Turkey. He obtained his PhD in International Relations from the Department of International and Strategic Studies at the University of Malaya, Malaysia.

Blurb

This book presents the first full and systematic account of Iran’s nuclear program from 1979 to 2015. Throughout this time, foreign policy makers, intelligence experts, and scholars on the subject have repeatedly failed to understand the internal dynamics behind Iran's nuclear project and have underestimated the depth of the regime’s commitment to develop nuclear weapons. The author presents an account of little-understood episodes in the history of the nuclear project, including an analysis of the decision making process of the “nuclear sanctum.” A full account is given of the organizations that ran the project and a listing of the suppliers that made the project possible. Finally, the book offers a detailed analysis of the international sanctions placed on Iran, including the induced anomie and legitimacy crisis which expedited the decision to rollback.