Decade of Diplomacy: Negotiations with Iran and North Korea and the Future of Nuclear Nonproliferation

The past two decades have seen the emergence of new nuclear proliferation challenges and exposed the weakness of the international instruments available to stop them. This monograph analyzes diplomatic strategies for confronting determined nuclear proliferators, focusing on the case studies of Iran and North Korea and the strategies that were devised and implemented by strong international actors in their attempts to curb the military intentions of these two proliferators over the decade beginning in 2002 – when both crises erupted almost simultaneously – through the end of 2011. While emphasizing that each proliferation challenge must be confronted on its own terms, the author argues that lessons gleaned from these two cases might enhance prospects for more auspicious negotiations when confronting future proliferators, although the challenge is considerable.