•SUBSTANCE:•Must address a current world event through one of the main theoretical lenses presented during the course.my theoretical lense : realism / offensive realism. •FORMAT:•Ten pages in
What if they have a nuclear weapon?
The Iranian Islamic revolution of 1979 has given the world a new dimension of international relations among the western hemisphere and the newly formed Islamic republic. Within the agitated relation between the western and the eastern hemispheres raised by the so-called cold war, another actor came into the show. This time the actor was an unexpected guest who changed the rules of the game in the international system. The newly formed theocratic regime in the middle east with radical slogans such as “death to America” and “death to Israel” have had too much rivals since its inception. Since the victory of the Islamic revolution, and through the rest of years of the cold war up until its end, the major global conflict has shifted to focus on the claimed anti-democratic regime with its new realist revolutionary, Ayatollah Rohallah Khomeini.
It all started with Iran hostage crisis during the carter administration when the latter failed to reach a compromise with the Iranians which cost him his presidency to republican nominee Ronald Reagan. America’s hostility against Iran was at its peak during that era specifically with considering US strong ties with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s regime before the revolution. This hostility was reflected through a variety of sanctions that battered the Iranian economy. Iran has also suffered from international sanctions regarding the proliferation of its nuclear program (Levs, 2012). As a result, the Islamic regime has been living in a self-help system due to the compelled separation from the international system. A separation which the regime has fought through the adoption of a realist approach in the international system (Barbara 2009). The structure of the international system is what should derive Iran to produce and maintain Nuclear weapons in order to survive in the anarchic system where the intentions of other states’ can never be trusted.