What happens if iran gets a nuke

Because Iran has completed these steps, the U. However, a number of U. Learn more about the sanctions that remain in place on Iran here. That is not how the IAEA does business. As we have said before—and as we briefed Congress fully in classified settings—the U. The United States has already made our judgment about the past.

We are focused on moving forward, in which we will rely on the unprecedented robust monitoring, verification, and transparency measures ever negotiated so we will know that any activities that caused us concern have been stopped. Most importantly, we can snap sanctions back into place if Iran blocks inspections from taking place going forward. Nuclear physicists, military officials, non-proliferation experts, and more than countries across the globe have all voiced their support for the Iran nuclear deal because it is the best solution available to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon without taking military action.

Skip to Content Skip to Navigation. Go To Top. On January 16, , the International Atomic Energy Agency verified that Iran has completed the necessary steps under the Iran deal that will ensure Iran's nuclear program is and remains exclusively peaceful.

Read the Iran Deal facts: "Will Iran be able to inspect its own nuclear facilities? Not now and certainly not in the future. In the past fifty years, however, many states, large and small, have proceeded down the nuclearization path more gradually than their capabilities would have permitted, and in many cases have paused for years or stopped completely at the stage of nuclear latency.

Even some of the states that eventually joined the nuclear club such as Israel and India were unsure about their ultimate goals and spent a considerable amount of time debating the nature of their nuclear programs. After India's test of a nuclear device , which was not the prototype of a weapon, New Delhi sat on the nuclear fence for sixteen years before it finally began weaponizing in North Korea did not test its first nuclear bomb until , more than half a century after it launched its nuclear weapons program, even though its nuclear capabilities were so advanced in that U.

Also, Iran may drag its feet on the path to a bomb. Iranian leaders have seen Japan as a model and have argued that if Japan is allowed to have fuel-cycle technologies and stay in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, then Iran should have that option too. This slow proliferation can only partly be explained by threats of strict nonproliferation sanctions. Even without them, prolonging nuclear latency may make sense for most potential nuclear powers, politically, economically, and strategically.

Politically, nuclear weapons have not proven to be a broadly useful coercive tool, as it is difficult to credibly threaten the use of such destructive power unless in response to severe security threats.

By contrast, stopping short of building nuclear bombs while keeping or upgrading the relevant technologies can buy a state bargaining leverage often disproportionate to its capabilities. This is apparently the reason Iran is currently engaging in nuclear activities that have no civil justification.

This may be the most likely outcome if Iran got nuclear weapons, but it should also be the least worrying. Nevertheless, the United States would probably vigorously work to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons even if it could somehow be assured that greater steadfastness would be the only change in Iran's behavior. A greater Iranian inclination to resist challenges would constrain U. In fact, as Francis Gavin argues in a recent article , the fear that proliferation would constrain America's freedom of action has been a powerful motivation for U.

Each nuclear state has behaved somewhat differently with nuclear weapons. However, history suggests that if Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, it would be less universally emboldened than the pessimists fear, but nor would it find nuclear weapons to be useless.

Ultimately, the fact that nuclear weapons are useful tools of international statecraft makes it hard to persuade countries to give up nuclear weapons once they have them, but has also motivated vigorous and often successful U. Journal Article - Journal of Politics. Blog Post - Technology and Policy.

Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA Quarterly Journal: International Security. US-Russian Contention in Cyberspace. Adobe Stock. The Geopolitics of Renewable Hydrogen. What Comes After the Forever Wars. Full event video and after-event thoughts from the panelists.

Author: Mark S. Bell August 20, How might Iran use nuclear weapons? Nuclear states work hard to prevent nuclear proliferation Nevertheless, the United States would probably vigorously work to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons even if it could somehow be assured that greater steadfastness would be the only change in Iran's behavior.

Want to Read More? The full text of this publication is available via the original publication source. Read Full Article. For more information on this publication: Belfer Communications Office. The Author. Mark S. Christopher A.