FOREIGN POLICY ANALYSIS

Foreign Policy Analysis

Foreign Policy Analysis

Introduction

In recent years, Iran's nuclear program has aroused increasing concern from the international community. Iran reveals that it's developing nuclear technology to provide electricity to its citizens. Iran has continued to develop its nuclear program, and speculation asserts that Israel may launch a military strike to halt the Iranian nuclear program. In that case, U.S. could be drawn into a military conflict with Iran with the support of Israel. Many of the sanctions against Iran have been targeted at its oil exports. Iran is one of the largest oil exporters in the world with approximately 80 percent of its export revenue coming from oil sales, mostly to India and China.

However, EU buys a large percentage of Iranian oil as well. In early 2012, the EU announced that it would stop buying Iranian oil as of July while in response, Iran preemptively halted oil sales to Europe. There have been increasing calls from some foreign policy analysts for either U.S. military strike against Iran or support of Israel to attack Iran. The paper is based on individual type of analysis to understand the foreign policy of USA towards Iran. This approach to analyses is adopted to justify the arguments and discuss the situation well.

Role of Individuals in Shaping Foreign Policy

Iran does pose a threat to the U.S., particularly if it acquires a nuclear weapon. Many even acknowledge that diplomatic talks with Iran over its nuclear program could very well fail. Moreover, diplomacy is a far less risky course of action than a military strike. "There is no guarantee that diplomacy will succeed (Hill, 2002, Blanton, 1996, 23-44). But that is also true of war," write former U.S. diplomat William Luers and Thomas Pickering, an undersecretary of state during the administration of President Bill Clinton (Phillips, 1994, 78-84). "Only diplomacy can offer Iran's current rulers a stake in building a secure future without a nuclear bomb" (Daddow, 2009, 547-560). "Only diplomacy can achieve America's major objectives while avoiding the mistakes committed in Iraq or Vietnam."It Is Time to Strike Iran.

During much of the 1980s, when Iran was engaged in a long war with neighboring Iraq, the U.S. provided financial and military support to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (Peterson, 1994, 215-234). Later, during the presidency of George W. Bush, the U.S. invaded Iraq to remove Hussein (as a result of claims, which were later discredited, that Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction). Some journalists and foreign policy analysts speculated that the U.S. would launch a similar attack on Iran, though no such invasion occurred during Bush's tenure (Houghton, 2001, 89-96).

If the U.S. favors diplomatic relations and friendly dialogue with Khatami's reformist government over sanctions and threats, the Iranian government will feel less imperiled and will be less defensive. That would reduce the risk of Iran meddling in Iraq and continuing to try to develop nuclear weapons (Byman, Chubin, Ehteshami, Green, 2001, 108-124). An antagonistic approach on the part of the ...