This blog post will discuss about the article “Why Iran Should Get the Bomb” written by Kenneth N. Waltz. With the examples of real world situations, this article helped me to broaden my knowledge of International Relations theory. As a founder of neorealism, in this article, Waltz views the issue of Iran’s possession of nuclear weapon with neorealism point of view. He argues that the emergence of nuclear capabilities of a certain country indeed enables balance of power. To put it concretely, Waltz agrees Iran having nuclear power claiming that it leads to stability.

Waltz believed that there are three different ways to stop the debate about Iran’s nuclear program. First, he argued that displaying the acts of diplomacy with server sanctions would make Iran to put a halt to pursuing a nuclear power. However, there were some historical records such as North Korea showing that the serious sanctions cannot stop the action of a certain country. Second, he proposed that “Iran stops short of testing a nuclear weapon but develops a breakout capability, the capacity to build and test one quite quickly” (2). But a breakout capability unexpectedly had the possibility of an inadvertent side effect.

Third, to my surprise, he suggested allowing Iran to test a nuclear weapon and obtain their own nuclear weapons. Waltz argued that the regional nuclear monopoly of Israel made the Middle East to remain unstable for awhile. Therefore, he claimed that “when countries acquire the bomb, they feel increasingly vulnerable and become acutely aware that their nuclear weapons make them a potential target in the eyes of major powers” (4) and this prevents nuclear states from being aggressive.

This reading helped me to shed light on the lectures about International Relations theory, especially neorealism, by providing the view of neorealism related to the balance of power. It was interesting that Waltz’s view of Iran’s nuclear activities was quite different from the vast majority.