Iran's nuclear program is one of this century's principal foreign policy challenges. Despite U.S., Israeli, and allied efforts, Iran has an extensive enrichment program and likely has the technical capacity to produce at least one nuclear bomb if it so chose. This study assesses U.S. policy options, identifies a way forward, and considers how the United States might best mitigate the negative international effects of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Examines Iran's current nuclear potential while charting America's future course of action, recounting the prolonged clash between both nations to outline options for American policymakers.

Iran's nuclear program is one of this century's principal foreign policy challenges. Despite U.S., Israeli, and allied efforts, Iran has an extensive enrichment program and likely has the technical capacity to produce at least one nuclear bomb if it so chose. This study assesses U.S. policy options, identifies a way forward, and considers how the United States might best mitigate the negative international effects of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Since the 1979 Revolution in Iran and the end of a close relationship between the US and the Shah, successive American administrations – including the Obama Administration – have tried to contain Iran by various means, particularly sanctions and military threats. Even though President Obama came to office promising to engage Iran, in reality his administration has followed the policy of “tough diplomacy,” which has included, among other acts, imposing draconian sanctions against Iran. Following the author’s earlier book on the history of containment of Iran and Iraq, the current book examines closely the Obama Administration’s policy toward Iran, as well as the role played by Israel, the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the implementation of this policy. Specifically, it is argued that the policy of “tough diplomacy,” designed mostly by those associated with the Israeli lobby groups, was intended to give an ultimatum to Iran in some direct meetings, telling Iran to either accept the US-Israeli demands or face aggression. The meetings were also intended to create the illusion of engaging Iran in order to gain international support for aggressive actions. Barack Obama announced this policy in his speeches as a Senator, particularly at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conferences. After he became president in 2008, the policy of “aggressive diplomacy” was put in motion. While pretending to engage Iran in diplomacy, the Obama Administration, in coordination with the US Congress and the government of Israel, pushed for the most confrontational IAEA reports on Iran and an unprecedented set of unilateral and multilateral sanctions. The US and Israel also engaged in a campaign of military threats, sabotage and assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. Yet, after four years of hostilities, the policy of “tough diplomacy” failed to achieve many of its goals and failed to contain Iran.

"The Institute of Science and International Security’s new book Iran’s Perilous Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons chronicles the Islamic Republic of Iran’s efforts to build nuclear weapons. The book draws from original Iranian documents seized by Israel’s Mossad in 2018 in a dramatic overnight raid in Tehran. The “Nuclear Archive” allows deep insight into the country’s effort to secretly build nuclear weapons. The book relies on unprecedented access to archive documents, many translated by the Institute into English for the first time. The first part of the book concentrates on Iran’s crash nuclear weapons program in the early 2000s to build five nuclear weapons and an industrial complex to produce many more. By 2003, responding to growing pressure from European powers to freeze its publicly known nuclear programs and fearing a possible U.S. military attack, Iran’s leaders decided to downsize, but not stop, their secret nuclear weapons effort. The second part of the book discusses Iran’s nuclear path post-2003, revealing a careful plan to continue nuclear weapons work, overcome bottlenecks and better camouflage nuclear weapons development activities. Since 2003, the Islamic Republic’s nuclear scientists and weaponeers have concentrated on establishing capabilities to make weapon-grade uranium and developing more reliable, longer-range ballistic missiles."--Publisher description.

The definitive book on Obama's historic nuclear deal with Iran from the author of the Foreign Affairs Best Book on the Middle East in 2012 This timely book focuses on President Obama's deeply considered strategy toward Iran's nuclear program and reveals how the historic agreement of 2015 broke the persistent stalemate in negotiations that had blocked earlier efforts. The deal accomplished two major feats in one stroke: it averted the threat of war with Iran and prevented the possibility of an Iranian nuclear bomb. Trita Parsi, a Middle East foreign policy expert who advised the Obama White House throughout the talks and had access to decision-makers and diplomats on the U.S. and Iranian sides alike, examines every facet of a triumph that could become as important and consequential as Nixon's rapprochement with China. Drawing from more than seventy-five in-depth interviews with key decision-makers, including Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, this is the first authoritative account of President Obama's signature foreign policy achievement.

For twenty-six years, Iran has waged an international terrorist war while the intelligence services of the West, led by Mossad and the CIA, have waged a relentless, mostly clandestine counter-jihad in return. Though Iran has become a quietly looming threat, little has been revealed about this intelligence-based war. Now, Ronen Bergman, Israel’s leading reporter and analyst of intelligence affairs, has written a full account of this secret war. He connected the dots of the long history of Iranian backed terrorist attacks, and revealed for the first time many classified operations against the Iranian terrorist network, including details about collaborations between Israel’s Mossad and the CIA and FBI; thrilling Mossad operations, the successful recruitment of top insiders of Iranian intelligence, who have disclosed a wealth of information about Iran’s nuclear program as well as it’s terrorist activities; and the use of ultra-sophisticated surveillance equipment to penetrate and damage Iranian targets. From the Iranian proxy Hizbollah’s planning of terrorists attacks from apartments in New York City, to Iran’s training of an army of work Iraqi insurgents in the techniques of suicide bombing and the making of improvised explosive devises, he showed Iran has steadily waged war against the West.