Iran’s Nuclear Program

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Proliferation, Sanctions, and Rollback: A Multidisciplinary Approach

   • Farhad Rezaei

   Pages 1-11

3. The Islamic Revolution and the Bomb: Quran Meets Realism

   • Farhad Rezaei

   Pages 13-34

4. Rafsanjani’s Nuclear Takeoff: Taking Advantage of the Weak Non-Proliferation Regime

   • Farhad Rezaei

   Pages 35-75

5. Khatami’s Dialogue among Civilizations and the Nuclear “Disappearance Act”

   • Farhad Rezaei

   Pages 77-118

6. Ahmadinejad’s Principalist Doctrine: Sovereign Rights to a Nuclear Arsenal

   • Farhad Rezaei

   Pages 119-158

7. International Sanctions: The High Cost of Proliferation in a Neopatrimonial Regime

   • Farhad Rezaei

   Pages 159-196

8. The Rouhani Presidency: The Road to Rollback

   • Farhad Rezaei

   Pages 197-243

9. Concluding Reflections on Iran’s Proliferation and Rollback

   • Farhad Rezaei

   Pages 245-248

10. Back Matter

    Pages 249-272

    PDF

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.

• Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
• JCPOA
• Office of the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guards
• Nuclear Suppliers Group
• Non-proliferation Treaty
• A. Q Khan
• Atomic Energy Organization of Iran
• Revolutionary Guards
• Artesh
• Supreme Council of Technology

• Center for Iranian Studies (IRAM), Ankara, Turkey

  Farhad Rezaei

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.

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