In Why Iran Should Get the Bomb, Waltz argues that a nuclear Iran could possibly have a stabilizing effect, one in which Iran and Israel would keep each other in check. This would help Iran’s leaders feel less vulnerable to Israel, which is a rising hegemony in the Middle East. Waltz reminds us readers that throughout history, there has never been a full-scale nuclear war between two nuclear-armed countries. Aside from concerns about Israel, Iran continues to combat ISIS and therefore wants to heighten its nuclear arsenals as a defense mechanism.
Waltz’ statement that “open lines of communication will make the Western countries feel better able to live with a nuclear Iran” is implausible. In 2003, an Islamic government official asked for the Ayatollah’s religious opinion on nuclear weapons. In response, the Ayatollah wrote a fatwa – an Islamic legal document that deemed nuclear weapons as weapons of mass destruction, and recognized that Iran was a victim of such weapons in the past. Therefore, the use of such weapons on the general public is considered haram, illegal under Islamic law. Current leader Hassan Rouhani seemed to share the same stance as Khamenei in 2013, when he said “nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran’s security and defence doctrine and contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions”. It is inconsistent statements like these and a lack of credibility that would inhibit any possibility of “open lines of communications”.
Waltz suggests that the United States should not “take such pains to prevent the Iranians from developing a nuclear weapon”. However, if the U.S. refrains from taking action against disarming Iran, the U.S. would be perceived as sending an unclear message to other nuclear-seeking countries, which would also weaken its reputation as a global power. The U.S. has a history of interfering in international issues, but this has only solidified its position on the world scale, on a consistent platform where leadership is exercised. In the last 25 years, there have been six countries that have attempted to become nuclear states: Libya, South Africa, Syria and Iraq. Libya and South Africa gave up, while Syria and Iraq were stopped. Pakistan and North Korea continued and are now both nuclear-armed states. If Iran joins Pakistan and North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, this would result in a security dilemma in which other countries follow suit to protect themselves. This would effectively put an end to the global disarmament that the U.S. has been pursuing for almost 70 years.
Why Iran Should Get the Bomb helped associate relevant themes in our class such as the security dilemma, commitment problems, and hegemonies – it was very effective at bringing in these key IR topics and relating it to today’s global crisis.