Coping with a Nuclearizing Iran
42Alireza Nader visited Google LA to discuss "Coping with a Nuclearizing Iran."
It is not inevitable that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons or event that it will gain the capacity to qiuckly produce them. US and even Israeli analysts continually push their estimates for such an event further into the future. Nevertheless, absent a change in Iranian policy, it is reasonable to assume that, some time in the coming decade, Iran will acquire such a capability. Most recent scholarly studies have also focused on how to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Other, less voluminous writing looks at what to do after Iran becomes a nuclear power. What has so far been lacking is a policy framework for dealing with Iran before, after and, indeed, during its crossing of the nuclear threshold.
Alireza Nader is a senior international policy analyst at the RAND corporation and the lead co-auther of Coping with a Nuclearizing Iran (2011). His research has focused on Iran's political dynamics, elite decisionmaking, and Iranian foreign policy.