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INTERVIEW with Jalil Roshandel:
Conducted by Antonia DimouReproduced by the Middle East Observer, Issue #1, January 2010, Institute for Security and Defense Analyses, Athens. Why Iran, according to your view, has invested a great political and national capital to become nuclear? Several different factors have contributed to Iran's decision to go nuclear. The readers remember that in the 1980s Iran was in the middle of a long war with Iraq and it is quite natural that it felt possession of any kind of weapons of mass destruction could make the life of war shorter. This initial feeling of insecurity was enhanced by the US and European pressures during the past thirty years followed by economic sanctions and attemps to isolate Iran in the international arena. Iran had to adjust its expectation of nuclear capability and limit itself to peaceful activities. At least since 2003, Iran has persistently claimed that it is not seeking military nuclear capacity. However, it looks like Iran has been unable to secure the international community's confidence and trust due to old controversies in its nuclear program and president Ah-madinejad's controversial remarks in his foreign policy goals. Caught in a real predicament, on the one, Iran wants to have something to bargain in its foreign relations with big powers. It understands that nuclear technology will give it more muscle and more power in its relations with others. In addition there is some misunderstanding in the way Iran and the international community interpret the text and the promise of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT)... Remainder of the (rather lengthy) article is available at the link. Cut to avoid copyright lawsuits... Jalil Roshandel is Associate Professor and Director of the Security Studies program at the Political Science Department, East Carolina University. He has held several research and teaching positions at various institutions, including the University of Tehran, the Institute for Political & International Studies (IPIS) in Iran, Copenhagen Peace Research Institute (COPRI), the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey, the Stanford University, the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) , University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Duke University, North Carolina. Posted by: Phinegum Ebbineque8989 2010-10-26 |
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