What the Iran-Iraq War Tells Us about the Future of the Iran Nuclear Deal

Bibliographic Data

ID11262087
AuthorsAriane M Tabatabai (Walsh University, corresponding author), Annie Tracy Samuel (0000-0002-4767-3873, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga)
Year2017
Volume42
Issue1
Pages152-185
Publication date2017-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Security (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2889 • E-ISSN: 1531-4804
PublisherMIT Press - Journals (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1162/isec_a_00286
OpenAlexW2742137193
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited22

The 1980–88 Iran-Iraq War stands as the pivotal event for Iran's national security strategy, especially as it pertains to the country's controversial nuclear program. The “imposed war,” as it is known to Iranians, caused Iran to view itself as isolated and on the defensive, striving for self-reliance and survival in what it continues to perceive as an unjust international order. The war has shaped both Iran's strategic outlook generally and its nuclear policies specifically. It was a decisive factor in determining the nature and scope of Iran's nuclear activities, as well as in Iran's approach to the international negotiations surrounding those activities, which in 2015 produced the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Both during those talks and after the implementation of the deal began, Iranian decisionmakers regularly invoked the history and lessons of the war to construe their decisionmaking process and define their bottom lines. Yet the war and its implications for Iran's strategic culture and nuclear thinking remain understudied and misunderstood. If the implementation of the deal and a longer-term resolution of the conflict over Iran's nuclear program are to succeed, the history of the Iran-Iraq War and the vital lessons that Iran has drawn from it must be appreciated

Iraq war · Middle East · Military strategy · Negotiation · Nuclear weapon · Political economy · Political science · Scope (computer science · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Economic Sanctions and International Relations · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Nuclear Issues and Defense

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