Government assignment

Model Paper

POTUS Policy Memo Project

(Your Name)

(Instructor)

GOVT 2302-xxxx

(Semester and Year)

Word Count: 646 (excluding citations)

Title: Iran’s Nuclear Capabilities

MEMO

To: Barrack Obama, President of the United States From: Model Student Date: January 01, 2012. Subject: Israeli-Palestinian Peace Program

Since the end of the Cold War, much of the developed world has been concerned about

the possibility of nuclear weapons making their way into the hands of hostile governments. From

the inception of Iran’s nuclear energy program the United States, as well as the United Nations,

has kept Iran under close watch due to those concerns. After 2005, with the election of

president Ahmadinejad, Iranian policy towards the U.S. began to fundamentally shift and Iran

began to consider the U.S. as expansionistic and interventionist (Barzegar 176). These policy

shifts have spread through Iran, which has created the sense that the U.S. is the main enemy of

Iran (Jawan and Naji 6). The primary reason behind this shift in policy has been U. S. pressure

for Iran to end its nuclear power program.

After the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran was willing to cooperate with the

U.S. with assistance in subverting terrorist activities, border controls, intervening in drug

trafficking, and other domestic help in Afghanistan (Sadat and Hughes 3). This increased

cooperation has given Iran the time needed to perfect uranium enrichment and other nuclear

capabilities. During this time of increased cooperation the only consistent policies that were

deployed were the use of economic and political sanctions on Iran issued through the U.N.

While these sanctions have been fairly effective in keeping American companies from trading

with Iran, the sanctions have been ineffective overall in persuading Iran to drop their nuclear

program. Factors which have influenced the sanctions are, “The attitude of Iran’s main trading

partners towards U.S. sanctions, The readiness of America’s partners to uphold the U.S.

sanctions and implement their own punitive measures against Iranian practice, The existence of

so called “black knights” — a term that some researchers apply to countries that are less

important trading partners of the targeted state but are able to use the punitive measures as a

“lucrative opportunity” to increase their presence in the markets of the sanctioned country as the

bigger players leave and, in doing so, mitigate the negative effect of the punitive

measures”(Kozhanov 4).

Economic and political sanctions are still the best way to close Iran’s nuclear program in

order to avoid military conflict. However, there should be some adjustments made to the way

the U.S. goes about sanctions. First, all loopholes in the wording of the sanctions should be

clarified in order to make the sanctions a more powerful tool. Second, political dialogue should

be opened with all of Iran’s allies and trading partners to convince them of the necessity of

cutting ties with Iran until Iran’s nuclear program is dismantled. Third, if those allies and trading

partners are unwilling to support the U. S. additional sanctions should be placed on those

countries. Fourth, other world powers such as Russia and China must agree with and follow the

sanctions as well. By 2010 China had become the biggest investor in Iran’s energy sector and

this has weakened and slowed all U.N. deliberation on the Iranian nuclear matter (Garver 79).

China must be convinced that a nuclear free Iran is best for the entire world. Fifth, a

contingency plan should be constructed using the support of the U.N., to keep nuclear weapons

out of the hands of potentially volatile governments, and to plan a multination surgical military

strike against all known and suspected nuclear facilities in Iran.

If Iran continues to disregard U.S. and U.N. requests to dismantle their nuclear

programs, there will be a near future in which, “diplomatic and economic coercion is exhausted,

and no options remain other than military action” (Eckholm 35). Rethinking the way the U.S.

goes about using economic sanctions and having a contingency plan for an inevitable military

strike are the best options that the U.S. has to eliminate Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons.

Thank you for your time and consideration in this policy matter.

Works Cited

Barzegar, Kayhan. "Iran’s Foreign Policy Strategy after Saddam." The Washington Quarterly 33.1 (2010): 173-189. EBSCOhost. Web. 5 Jan. 2012.

Eckholm, Leif. "Invading Iran: Lessons from Iraq." Policy Review 168 (2011): 35-49. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Jan. 2012.

Garver, John W. "Is China Playing a Dual Game in Iran?" The Washington Quarterly 34.1 (2011): 75-88. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Jan. 2012.

Jawan, Jayum A., and Saeid Naji. "US-Iran Relations in the Post-Cold War Geopolitical Order." Asian Social Science 7.9 (2011): n. pag. EBSCOhost. Web. 5 Jan. 2012.

Kozhanov, Nikolay A. "U.S. Economic Sanctions against Iran: Undermined by External Factors." Middle East Policy 18.3 (2011): n. pag. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Jan. 2012.

Sadat, Mir H., and James P. Hughes. "U.S.-Iran Engagement Through Afghanis tan." Middle East Policy 17.1 (2010): n. pag. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Jan. 2012.