Iran and Nuclear Weapons: Protracted Conflict and Proliferation

169 Pages·2009·1.04 MB·english

by  Saira Khan

Iran and NuclearWeapons
This book investigates what is driving Iran’s nuclear weapons program in a less-
hostile regional environment, using a theory of protracted conflicts to explicate
proliferation.
Iran’s nuclear weapons program has alarmed the international community since
the 1990s, but has come to the forefront of international security concerns since
2000. This book argues that Iran’s hostility with the United States remains the
major causal factor for its proliferation activities. With the US administration pur-
suing aggressive foreign policies towards Iran since 2000, the latter’s security
threat intensified. A society that is split on many important domestic issues
remained united on the issue of nuclear weapons acquisition after the US war in
Iraq. Consequently, Iran became determined in its drive to acquire nuclear weapons
and boldly announced its decision to enrich uranium, leaving the US in no doubt
about its nuclear status.
This book underscores the importance of protracted conflicts in proliferation
decisions, and underpinning this is the assumption that non-proliferation may be
achieved through the termination of intractable conflicts. The aims of this work are
to demonstrate that a state’s decision to acquire nuclear weapons depends largely
on its engagement in protracted conflicts, which shows not only that the presence
of nuclear rivals intensifies the nuclear ambition, but also that non-nuclear status of
rival states can promote non-proliferation incentives in conflicting states inclined
to proliferate.
This study will be of great interest to students of Iran, Middle Eastern politics,
nuclear proliferation and international relations theory.
Saira Khan is a Research Associate at McGill-University of Montreal Joint
Research Group in International Security (REGIS).
Routledge global security studies
Series editors: Aaron Karp, Regina Karp and Terry Teriff
Nuclear Proliferation and International Security
Sverre Lodgaard and Morten Bremer Maerli
Global Insurgency and the Future of Armed Conflict
Debating fourth-generation warfare
Terry Terriff, Aaron Karp and Regina Karp
Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Responding to the challenge
Edited by Ian Bellany
Globalization and WMD Proliferation
Edited by James A. Russell and Jim J. Wirtz
Power Shifts, Strategy and War
Declining states and international conflict
Dong Sun Lee
Energy Security and Global Politics
The militarization of resource management
Edited by Daniel Moran and James A. Russell
US Nuclear Weapons Policy After the Cold War
Russians, ‘rogues’ and domestic division
Nick Ritchie
Security and Post-Conflict Reconstruction
Dealing with fighters in the aftermath of war
Edited by Robert Muggah
Network Centric Warfare and Coalition Operations
The new military operating system
Paul T. Mitchell
American Foreign Policy and the Politics of Fear
Threat inflation since 9/11
Edited by A. Trevor Thrall and Jane K. Cramer
Risk, Global Governance and Security
The other war on terror
Yee-Kuang Heng and Kenneth McDonagh
Nuclear Weapons and Cooperative Security in the 21st Century
The new disorder
Stephen J. Cimbala
Political Economy and Grand Strategy
A neoclassical realist view
Mark R. Brawley
Iran and Nuclear Weapons
Protracted conflict and proliferation
Saira Khan

Iran and Nuclear Weapons
Protracted conflict and proliferation
Saira Khan
First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
© 2010 Saira Khan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites
referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any
content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Khan, Saira.
Iran and nuclear weapons: protracted conflict and proliferation / Saira Khan
p. cm.
1. Nuclear arms control—Iran. 2. Nuclear weapons—Iran. 3. Nuclear
nonproliferation—Case studies. 4. United States—Foreign relations—Iran.
5. Iran—Foreign relations—United States. I. Title.
JZ5665.K49 2009
355.02'170955—dc22
2009013231
ISBN 0-203-86942-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–45307–0 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–86942–7 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–45307–3 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–86942–0 (ebk)
To my dearest mother, Nargis Khan

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
PARTI
Causes of proliferation 9
1 Factors utilized to comprehend Iran’s nuclear weapons aspiration 11
PART II
Theory 25
2 Proliferation proclivities of protracted conflict states 27
PART III
Case study: Iran 45
3 Iran’s nuclear ambition and twin protracted conflicts between
1947 and 1979 47
4 Iran’s nuclear program and triple protracted conflicts from 1979
onwards 63
5 The ramifications of the asymmetric Iran–US protracted conflict
from 1990 to 2000 in Iran’s nuclear domain 77
6 Iran’s fast-paced proliferation activity and hostile
US policy since 2000 89
Conclusion 110