To Be or Not to Be: Great Power Dilemmas and the Iranian Nuclear Programme

Abstract

Mark Fitzpatrick, Michael Elleman and Paulina Izewicz. 2019. Uncertain Future: The JCPOA and Iran’s Nuclear and Missile Programmes. Routledge. 168 pp. ISBN: 9780367197056. Dennis C. Jett. 2018. The Iran Nuclear Deal: Bombs, Bureaucrats, and Billionaires. Palgrave Macmillan. 481 pp. ISBN: 9783319598222. Moritz. Pieper. 2018. Hegemony and Resistance around the Iranian Nuclear Programme. Routledge. 190 pp. ISBN: 9780367173807. Farhad Rezaei. 2017. Iran’s Nuclear Program: A Study in Proliferation and Rollback. Palgrave Macmillan. 272 pp. ISBN: 9783319441191. Trita Parsi. 2017. Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy. Yale University Press. 472 pp. ISBN: 9780300218169. This article looks at the competing dilemmas faced by the great powers and the reasons for their eventual cooperation concerning Iran’s nuclear programme. The great powers were divided between those who wanted a total roll back and those who supported meaningful and verifiable limits. Using the levels of analysis framework, the article looks at individual actors, structural factors and the domestic interconnections that sustained the Iranian nuclear crisis and propelled its eventual resolution in the form of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.