Strategic Assessment

Challenging a recent article on Iran’s nuclear ambitions by neorealist Kenneth Waltz, this essay explores the reasons underlying the attempts by regional states to develop nuclear weapons programs; how these states have related to Israel’s nuclear policy over the years, including steps Israel has taken to stop other states from going nuclear; and the overall importance of focusing on the nature of interstate relations in the Middle East in any attempt to explain their strategic calculations, including with regard to nuclear weapons development. Against this backdrop, it will become clear why the particular case of Iran becoming a nuclear state defies simplistic neorealist prescripts, and that the operational conclusions derived from these prescripts are certainly not the best solution for this ongoing crisis.