An Analysis of Trump Administration's Approach towards the Nuclear Issue of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 M Sc. of political sciences, University of Isfahan

2 Associate Professor of International Relations, University of Isfahan

Abstract

Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program is a major issue in Trump's foreign and security policy in the West Asia (the Middle East). Although it was thought that the West's attitude towards the nuclear agreement of 5+1 countries’ Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) would undermine Washington's Iran-phobia policy, after Trump's entrance into the White House and his offensive measures as well as those of his cabinet members, Iran's nuclear program was again considered seriously in Washington's agenda. Hence, the main question of this study relates to the approach that Trump’s administration has taken towards the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear issue. In response, we hypothesize that Trump and US officials have exaggerated Iran's peaceful nuclear program to claim that it is a threat for the region and for the whole world security, resorting to the premise that Iran is using it for the construction of nuclear bombs. Making use of threatful and coercive instruments, America tries to stop the growing missile capabilities and regional influence of Iran as its main Middle East goal and policy. This, in turn, can shape regional equations and order in line with the goals and interests of Washington and its regional allies and weaken Iran's growing power and influence in the region. The findings of the study indicate that Trump administration's policy of achieving its short-term goals, such as the economic-political collapse of Iran in a year, or bringing Tehran to the negotiating table through US provisions, as a result of maximum economic sanctions and pressure, has faced failure. In this research qualitative analysis method was used for data analysis.

Keywords

References

- Abdelbari, Walid (2018), “Iran, Gaza, commerce: l’Europe et les ÉtatsUnis au bord de la rupture”, available at: https://www.tsaalgerie.com/iran-gaza-commerce-leurope-et-les-etats-unis-au-bordde-la-rupture/2018/may/20
- Alcaro,  Riccardo (2018), “All Is Not Quiet on the Western Front Trump’s Iran Policy and Europe’s Choice on the Nuclear Deal”, Istituto AFfari Internazionali, Pp. 1- 26.
- Aljazeera (Dec 16, 2017), “US calls for global 'coalition' to counter Iran”, available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/calls-global-coalition-counter-iran-171214190652267.html
- Batmanghelidj, Esfandyar and Axel Hellman (2018), “Mitigating US Sanction on Iran: The Case for a Humanitarian Special Purpose Vehicle”, European Leadership Networks, Available at: https://static1.squarespace.com/ static/54db7b69e4b00a5e4b11038c/t
- Berman, Ilan (2015), Iran’s deadly ambition: The Islamic Republic’s quest for global Power, New York: Encounter Books.
- Campbell, Charlie (2017), “Everything You Need to Know about President Trump’s Grueling Asia Tour”, The time, Available at: http://time.com/5006936/donaldtrump- china-vietnam-philippines-korea-japan-apec-asean/
- Champion, Marc and Jonathan Ferziger and David Wainer(February 18, 2018), “Israel, Saudis Find Common Cause in Warning of Iran Expansionism”, Bloomberg News, Available at:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/ articles/2018-02-18/netanyahu-in-munich-speech-urges-west-not-toappease-iran;
- Cherkaoui, Mohammed (2018), “Trump’s Withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal: Security or Economics?”, Available at: http://studies.aljazeera.net /en/reports/2018/05/trumps-withdrawal-iran-nuclear-deal-security-economics-180510123910355.html
- Cohen, Eliot A. (2019), “America’s Long Goodbye The Real Crisis of the Trump Era”, Available at: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/ long-term-disaster-trump-foreign-policy
- Cordesman, Anthony H. (January 7, 2019), “Iraq, Iran, the Gulf, Turkey, and the Future: The Meaningless Debate over the Trump Strategy in Syria”, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Available at: https://www.csis.org/analysis/iraq-iran-gulf-turkey-and-future-meaningless-debate-over-trump-strategy-syria
- Daily   Express( 2017),” US warns an 'unchecked Iran' could follow the path of North Korea amid WW3 fears”, Retrieved From: https://WWW.Express.Co.uk/news/world/94047/Donald- Trump-Iran-Rex-Tillerson-nuclear-world-War-3-sanctions-north-korea-Kim-Jong-un.
- De Luce, Dan and Robbie Gramer (February10, 2018), “Top Democrat’s Return Sows Uncertainty for Iran Deal”, in Foreign Policy, Available at: http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/10/robert-menendez-is-back-on-key-senate-panel-sowing-uncertainty-for-irandeal-senate-foreign-relations-committee-middle-east-trump-administrationdiplomacy-ben-cardin/
- European External Action Service (September 20, 2017), “Remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini following the Ministerial Meeting of the E3/EU + 3 and Iran”, available at: https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/32546/remarks-high -representativevice-president-federica-mogherini-following-ministerial-meeting _en
- Foor, Ashleigh (2018), “Summary of the Presidential Memorandum: Ceasing U.S. Participation in the JCPOA and Taking Additional Action to Counter Iran’s Malign Influence and Deny Iran All Paths to a Nuclear Weapon”, Available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/ceasing-u-s-participation-jcpoa-taking-additional-action-counter-irans-malign-influence-deny-iran-paths- nuclearweapon/.
- Gerecht, Reuel and Ray Takeyh (April 7, 2017) “How Trump Can Help Cripple the Iranian Regime”, The Washington Post, Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../how-trump-can-help-cripple-the-irania
- Holland, Steve and Maayan Lubell (2017), “Trump recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, reversing longtime U.S. policy”, Reuters.com, Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-israel/trump-recognizes-jerusalem -asisraels-capital-reversing-longtime-u-s-policy-idUSKBN1E01PS/
- Hunter, Shireen  T. (2010), Iran’s Foreign Policy in the Post-Soviet Era, Greenwood, Santa Barbara, California.  
- Giglio, Mike (September 25, 2018) “Trump's New Iran Strategy, Inspired By The Cold War, Calls For ‘Maximum Pressure", BuzzFeed News, Available at: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mikegiglio/trump-officials-are-reading-a-book-about-the-cold-war-for
- Goldenberg, Ilan and Elizabeth Rosenberg(March 13, 2018), “How to Save the Iran Nuclear Deal”, in Foreign Affairs Snapshots, Available at: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/iran/2018-03-13/how-save-irannuclear-deal.
- Greenberg, Jon and John Kruzel and Amy Sherman (2018), “Trump withdraws U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal. Here’s what you need to know”, Available at: https://www.thenagarepublic.com/news/trump-withdraws-u-s-from -the-iran-nuclear-deal-heres-what-you-need-to-know/
- International Atomic Energy Agency (October 13, 2017), “Statement by IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano”, Available at: https:// www.iaea.org/node/41258/
- Kagan, Frederick W. (2018) “Can We Pursue a Victory Strategy against Iran?” , Commentary Magazine.
- Kinzer, Stephen(January 4, 2016), “The United States Shouldn’t Choose Saudi Arabia Over Iran”, Politico Magazine, Available at: https://www.politico.com/ magazine/story/2016/01/saudi-arabia-iran-213504
- Klein, Philip (May 18, 2018), “Trump’s radical foreign policy idea: Stand with Israel”,  Available at: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ opinion/columnists/trumps-radical-foreign-policy-idea-stand-with-israel.       
- Landay, Jonathan And Arshad Mohammed And Steve Holland(September 11, 2017), “Exclusive: Trump to weigh more aggressive U.S. strategy on Iran – sources”, Retrieved From: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-iran-exclusive/exclusive-trump-to-weigh-more-aggressive-u-s-strategy-on-iran-sources-idUSKCN1BM2WJ
- Majumdar, Dave (2017), “How the United States Is Turning Saudi Arabia Into a MilitaryJuggernaut”,national interest, Available at: http://nationalinterest .Org/blog/the-buzz/how-the-united-states-turning-saudiarabia-military-20772.
- Maloney, Suzanne (May 11, 2017), “Under Trump, U.S. policy on Iran is moving from accommodation to confrontation”, available at: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2017/05/11/under-trump-u-s-policy-on-iran-is-moving-from-accommodation-to-confrontation/
- Manson, Katrina (2017), “U.N. Nuclear Agency Counters Trump Objections to Iran Deal”, Financial Times, available at: https://www.ft.com/ content/ac2c7bb4-c331-11e7-a1d2-6786f39ef675
- Meredith Rathbone and others (January 16, 2018), “President Trump Reissues Iran Sanctions Waivers, but Warns That Concerns over JCPOA Must Be Addressed”, in Steptoe International Compliance Blog, available at: https://www.steptoeinternationalcomplianceblog.com/?p=1886.
- Mossalanejad, A. (2018), “The Middle East security and Donald Trump's grand strategy”, Geopolitics Quarterly, Volume. 13, No. 4, pp: 20 – 52.
- Rathburn, Brian (2008), “A Rose by Any Other Name: Neoclassical Realism as the -Logical and Necessary Extension of Structural Realism”, Security Studies, Volume 17, Issue 2, Pages 294-231.
- Regencia, Ted (2017), “Is Trump leading the US on a warpath with Iran?”, Aljazeera, Available at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/02/ trump-leading-warpath-iran 170203105946707.html
- Reilly, Katie (June 2, 2016), “Read Hillary Clinton's Speech on Donald Trump and National Security”, Available at: https://time.com/4355797/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-foreign-policy-speech-transcript/
- Ritter, Scott (2018), Dealbreaker: Donald Trump and the Unmaking of the Iran Nuclear Deal, Clarity Press, pp. 1- 302
- Roe, Paul (2014), Ethnic Violence and the Societal Security Dilemma,    Publisher: Routledge, pp. 1- 216
- Smith, Lee (2018), The Trump Administration’s Next Moves on the Iran Nuclear Deal,Friends of Israel Initiative, pp. 1- 17
- Stolberg, Sheryl Gay  (March 23, 2019), “Israel Lobby Convenes in Washington Amid Fraying Bipartisanship and Rising Tension”, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/us/politics/aipac-israel-trump-democrats.html
- Tabatabai, Ariane (March 29, 2018), “The Bolton Threat to the Iran Nuclear Deal”, in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, available in: https://thebulletin.org/node/11645/
- The White House (2017), “America First Foreign Policy”, Available at: https://www.white house.gov/america-first-foreign-policy.
- Trump, Donald j. (2016), “We inherited a national debt that has doubled in eight years”, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC33EeUc69E
- Trump, Donald j. (October 13, 2017), “Remarks by President Trump on Iran Strategy”, The White House, Available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov /briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-iran-strategy.
- Trump, Donald j.  (May 11, 2018b), “President Trump Says the Iran Deal is Defective at Its Core. A New One Will Require Real Commitments”, Available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/president-trump-says-iran-deal-defective-core-new-one-will-require-real-commitments/
- Vatanka, Alex (2016), “Iran-U.S. Relations and the Next U.S. President”, Middle East Institute, July 25, available at: http://www.mei.edu/sites/ default/files/publications/PF17_Vatanka_Ir anUS_web.pdf
- Wohlfeld, Monika (2018), What Future for the Iran Nuclear Deal?, Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies, pp. 1- 76
- Zarif, Mohammad Javad (June 19, 2017a), “ Iran's missile capability protects its citizens in lawful self-defense & advances common global fight to eradicate ISIS & extremist terror”, Available at: www.Twitter.com/jzarif
- Zarif, Mohammad Javad (Dec 13, 2017b), “OIC recognizes East Jerusalem al-Quds as Palestine's capital”, Available at:  https://www.presstv.com/detail/ 2017/12/13/545489/oic-iran-zarif-jerusalem-israel-palestine-quds
Security Horizons
Volume 12, Issue 43
September 2019
Pages 75-113

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 11 July 2019
  • Revise Date: 16 October 2019
  • Accept Date: 01 December 2019

Share

How to cite

Statistics