Iran's Nuclear Hedging Strategy
Shaping the Islamic Republic’s Proliferation Calculus- Authors:
- Publisher:
- 2023
Summary
Tehran’s willingness to pause aspects of its nuclear program may offer opportunities to stroke regime concerns about the potential costs of moving forward.
Since halting its crash nuclear weapons program in 2003, the Islamic Republic has pursued a cautious hedging strategy that has enabled it to become an advanced nuclear threshold state, while also avoiding a military confrontation with the United States and Israel. Yet Iran’s willingness to pause aspects of its nuclear program in order to ease pressure—and in turn to pursue more urgent objectives—may help Washington constrain Tehran’s nuclear ambitions by amplifying its concerns about the potential risks and costs of proliferating.
In this Policy Focus, military analyst Michael Eisenstadt surveys the evolution of Iran’s nuclear hedging strategy and suggests ways for the United States, along with its allies and partners, to shape the regime’s proliferation calculus with the goal of preventing an Iranian breakout and a nuclearized Middle East.
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Bibliographic data
- Copyright year
- 2023
- ISBN-Print
- 978-1-5381-8134-8
- ISBN-Online
- 978-1-5381-8135-5
- Publisher
- Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
- Language
- English
- Pages
- C4
- Product type
- Book Titles
Table of contents
- Contents No access
- Figures No access
- Acknowledgments No access
- Glossary No access
- Executive Summary No access
- Introduction No access Pages 1 - 3
- Iran in Context: Nuclear Hedging, Reversal, and Rollback No access Pages 4 - 12
- Iran’s Proliferation Calculus: Risks, Costs, Benefits No access Pages 13 - 20
- Policy Recommendations: Shaping the Islamic Republic’s Proliferation Calculus No access Pages 21 - 30
- Conclusion No access Pages 31 - C4





