Why Should Iran's Nuclear Program?
Paragraph one: One of the main reasons the United States and Western European countries are hesitant to allow Iran to further its nuclear program to the point where it is able to obtain a nuclear weapon is that they are uncertain about what Iran will do once it has that kind of power. This uncertainty is further fueled by the fact that there is an unstable environment and a lot of distrust between countries in the Middle East. However, according to Waltz this current atmosphere of distrust in the Middle East is caused by an imbalance of power. This imbalance is created by the fact that Israel is the only one in the region that has nuclear weapons. Restoring a power balance in the Middle East by allowing Iran to obtain nuclear weapons will,
…show more content…
This fear is not completely irrational; Iran does have a past of supporting terrorist, during 1994-1996 it provided Hamas and the Islamic Jihad with the means to attack Israel (Parsi 11) and in the early 1990’s Iran agreed to provide support for Al Qaeda actions carried out against Israel and the United States (Wilner 21). Wilner explains the fact that Iran has been sponsoring terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy. He explains that Iran does not have the military abilities to influence foreign affairs in other ways, so it attempts to do so by means of terrorism (21-22). This is supported by the fact that when Iran did try to reach out to the Unites States as explained in the previous paragraph; it was simply not taken seriously. Thus when Iran obtains a nuclear weapon the position it will acquire by doing so will be more powerful and Iran will be able to influence foreign affairs without resorting to supporting terrorist groups. Furthermore, a country would never be able to transfer a nuclear weapon without being found out by the United States and face repercussions. Additionally obtaining a nuclear weapon is a very risky and costly process, Iran would not invest in it so extensively and then give it away. But perhaps the biggest reason Iran would defer from providing terrorist groups with nuclear weapons is that Iran cannot predict what those groups would do with those weapons; thus by doing so Iran would end up putting itself at risk, and therefore, as Waltz states: “[Iran] will have every reason to maintain full control over its arsenal”
This fear is not completely irrational; Iran does have a past of supporting terrorist, during 1994-1996 it provided Hamas and the Islamic Jihad with the means to attack Israel (Parsi 11) and in the early 1990’s Iran agreed to provide support for Al Qaeda actions carried out against Israel and the United States (Wilner 21). Wilner explains the fact that Iran has been sponsoring terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy. He explains that Iran does not have the military abilities to influence foreign affairs in other ways, so it attempts to do so by means of terrorism (21-22). This is supported by the fact that when Iran did try to reach out to the Unites States as explained in the previous paragraph; it was simply not taken seriously. Thus when Iran obtains a nuclear weapon the position it will acquire by doing so will be more powerful and Iran will be able to influence foreign affairs without resorting to supporting terrorist groups. Furthermore, a country would never be able to transfer a nuclear weapon without being found out by the United States and face repercussions. Additionally obtaining a nuclear weapon is a very risky and costly process, Iran would not invest in it so extensively and then give it away. But perhaps the biggest reason Iran would defer from providing terrorist groups with nuclear weapons is that Iran cannot predict what those groups would do with those weapons; thus by doing so Iran would end up putting itself at risk, and therefore, as Waltz states: “[Iran] will have every reason to maintain full control over its arsenal”