The Iranian Nuclear Policy Of The Obama Administration

Since taking office in2009, Barack Obama has taken much greater adjustment on the nuclear policy:pursuing a world without nuclear weapons, placing the prevention of nuclear terrorism and proliferation at the top of the policy agenda, and reducing the roles of U.S. nuclear weapons. Also he supports peaceful development of nuclear energy. The Islamic Republic of Iran locates in the Middle East, whose oil production capacity and the amount of crude oil exports rank the forth and second respectively in the world. Hence, it has important geopolitical, economical, energetic and security interests to the Unites States. In recent years, with the Iranian nuclear issue heating up, it has provokes international concern. Therefore, the Obama administration must incorporate Iran into the whole development of nuclear policy, and take it as a key task. This thesis tries to reflect the nuclear policy change of the United States toward Iran, and analyze the reasons, through the interaction between the two countries, so as to make a insightful judgment. This thesis threads by the time, and consists of a preface, four chapters and the conclusion.The first chapter mainly describes the engagement of the Obama administration during the initial period. After entering office, the president Obama has been seeking to focus on engagement, and releasing the signal of dialogue. He issued a public message to the Iranian people on the occasion of the Persian New Year. Iran’s2009presidential election is a turning point. At the beginning of the incident, the administration’s discretion and low-key style fully embodies its willing to improve relations with Iran and the engagement. Whereas, the Obama administration did turn back to a tough posture, which is influenced by many factors, especially the domestic force. The biggest prize of the engagement is the Iran nuclear negotiation. The final negotiation did not produce any substantial results, owing to many factors.The second chapter tells the pendulum swings of Obama’s nuclear policy toward Iran, since2010. At the beginning of2010, the spokesman issued a statement, which indicated that in this year, the United States would focus on sanctioning Iran. Then in the "state of union address","the nuclear posture review report", Obama stressed the importance of the Iranian nuclear issue again and urged other countries to push for new sanctions on its nuclear program. Under the push of the United States, the United Nation Security Council passed the resolution1929about the Iranian nuclear issue on June92010, with most sanction intensity. On the other hand, it didn’t give up the engagement. On December6,2010, the second round of Iranian nuclear talks restarted in Geneva. Although it didn’t reach any agreement, it determined the time and place for another negotiation, expressing the good intentions of both.The third chapter analyzes the effect of Obama’s further sanctions and the reasons. There is little progress in the Iran nuclear issue, and the relationship between the both didn’t achieve a breakthrough. In January2011, the Istanbul negotiations came to naught. The event of "killing door" tightened the relationship between the United Station and Iran, and the IAEA report inspired the international concern. Therefore, the Obama administration turned their nuclear policy toward growing sanctions. The United States continued to expand the scope of sanctions on Iran, and took Iran’s energy and financial industry into the new sanction range. Then the UK, Canada and France also announced to push new economic sanctions against Iran.The forth chapter deals with why the Obama administration made such a nuclear policy toward Iran, etc. There are some reasons for the Obama administration to peruse a two-track policy. Firstly, the Iran nuclear issue is not urgent to the United States, which is the fundamental basis of this policy. Secondly, the Iran nuclear issue is so complicated that the two-track policy is the only feasible option. The policy has not got a breakthrough, on the one hand, because Iran’s own ideology and the distrust to America. On the other hand, the goal of the both is so different that they can’t reach an agreement. In addition, the changes of international situation have affected the policy implementation. During the three years of the nuclear policy to Iran, the Obama administration has pursued a two-track policy, which seeks to persuade the Iranian leadership to give up its nuclear programme by creating a series of engagement and sanction actions. They developed the policy according to the changes of the domestic and international situation. For a long time, Obama could not break the deadlock about the Iran nuclear issue between the United States and Iran. For now, it won’t be solved in a short period. In a long period of time, the United States will still pursue the two-track policy toward Iran.