Iran's Nuclear weapons - Essay Example

Running Head: Should Force be Used if Necessary to Prevent Iran from Acquiring Nuclear Weapons? The relationship between the US and Iran has been marked with heightened tension in the past few years with the major catalyst being the latter’s nuclear program. America finds itself at crossroads for the facts that our military is already significantly engaged while on other hand allies continue to root for a diplomatic solution to the problem. It is clear that at the moment Iran doesn’t have the nuclear weaponry and estimates that it will up to ten years to have developed sufficient weapons to use.

With this in mind therefore it becomes clear that going to war at this moment in time would basically just be preventing Iran from achieving their ambition. It is therefore very important for the US to carefully evaluate policy options available in order to take the most appropriate possible course of action on Iran’s issue. Iran is a signatory to the NPT and thus agreeable to international regulations with regard nuclear proliferation, Iran has always been open and permitted inspection of its nuclear facilities by the IAEA and has constantly maintained that its nuclear program is purely for peaceful reasons permitted in the NPT.

There is no evidence to convince anyone that Iran’s program is intended at developing weapons to attack any nation or the US for that matter. Additionally we have seen our forces go into Iraq on grounds which were later to be proved false. Most important to consider is the fact that Iran is located in a region rich of oil which very crucial to the US and world economy hence an incursion on Iran will definitely interfere with the flow of oil at such a delicate time when a slight increase in oil price could take the world economy back to recession.

With this background information in mind therefore the United States have four key policy options consider on approaching Iran. The first option is employ military action as the threat appears real and close. America should therefore take action on its own to stop Iran from producing nuclear weapons and passing to other nations. But the Iraq experience tells us that war is more costly that good and therefore our effort should be geared at ending the problem and not going to war. It should be noted that Iran does not have a history of aggression without provocation, it won’t be easy to eliminate the nuclear facilities, and military action will just compound the issue and affect oil flow in the gulf region.

Another option is to use the American military and overthrow government in Iran since it is not possible to dissuade them from continuing their program. This will protect access to oil from the region hence won’t hurt the global economy but presence of a foreign military will not be take well by Iranians. At the same time American citizens are less likely to support war and attempting to disrupt government in Iran will just serve to make citizens more hostile to America. The third policy approach is the United States to start warming up to Iran and normalize relations.

War may not have a solution to the threats posed by Iran’s nuclear plans and instead diplomacy through economic incentives can be used to convince the leadership in Tehran against continuing with pursuit of nuclear weaponry. This option is less costly, it will allow diplomatic ties which permit addressing many other issues apart of nuclear arms, and will allow mutual relations. This should be carefully done because engaging Iran is tantamount to talking with terrorists, sanctions on the governments will hurt citizens and Iran employs diplomacy to mislead the world.

the final option is to retract and just avoid war because the biggest risk at the moment in America is going to war not having Iran with nuclear capacity. In conclusion therefore the relationship between Washington and Tehran has always been and continues to become more precarious by the minute. America perceives Iran as supporting terrorism, not upholding human rights and lately advancing plans to acquire nuclear weapons. But the approach to take in addressing Americas’ fears should be carefully thought about considering economic factors, Iran’s location and the cost of war.

It should also be considered whether Iran actually intends to use the nuclear facilities against other nations and whether it has any history of aggression without provocation as well as whether it refuses to corporate with international treaties. Force is definitely not the best way to go and the US should consider other options which are friendlier. References.1. Author. The United States and the Iranian Nuclear Program: Policy Options. Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University.

Retrieved at http://www.choices.edu/resources/twtn/documents/choices-twtn-iran-options.pdf