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Articles 1 - 17 of 17

Full-Text Articles in Political Science

The Danger Of Pressing Iran, Gabriel C. Lajeunesse Dec 2013

The Danger Of Pressing Iran, Gabriel C. Lajeunesse

Gabriel C. Lajeunesse

Overplaying our hand with Iran--either by piling on tough actions or by too rapid movement toward rapprochement--will play into the hand of hard liners and may cause President Rouhani’s efforts toward a negotiated settlement to fail.


How Precipitous A Decline? U.S.-Iranian Relations And The Transition From American Primacy, Hillary Mann Leverett Nov 2013

How Precipitous A Decline? U.S.-Iranian Relations And The Transition From American Primacy, Hillary Mann Leverett

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

This essay is grounded in two basic propositions. The first is that the greatest strategic challenge facing the United States is extricating its foreign policy from a well-worn but deeply counterproductive quest for hegemonic dominance in critical areas of the world, especially the Middle East. The second is that Washington’s handling of its relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran constitutes a crucial test of America’s capacity to put its foreign policy on a more productive and realistic trajectory. Since the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979, Washington has refused to understand and accept the basic model underlying its political order—the …


The Prohibition On The Use Of Force For Arms Control: The Case Of Iran’S Nuclear Program, Mary Ellen O'Connell, Reyam El Molla Nov 2013

The Prohibition On The Use Of Force For Arms Control: The Case Of Iran’S Nuclear Program, Mary Ellen O'Connell, Reyam El Molla

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

International law does not permit the use of military force against Iran to attempt to end its nuclear program. The resort to military force in international relations is covered first and foremost by Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter. Article 2(4) is a general prohibition on resort to force that includes resort to military force for arms control, including nuclear weapons control. The Charter has two express but limited exceptions to the ban on military force. A state that is the victim of a significant armed attack may use force in necessary and proportional self-defense; the United Nations Security …


Caroline Revisited: An Imagined Exchange Between John Kerry And Mohammad Javad Zarif, James W. Houck Nov 2013

Caroline Revisited: An Imagined Exchange Between John Kerry And Mohammad Javad Zarif, James W. Houck

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

In 1837, sailors of Great Britain's Royal Navy sank the American ship the Caroline over Niagra Falls. Great Britain justified the incident the preemptive strike as an act of self-defense. Diplomats of the two nations negotiated a legal framework to guide future preemptive uses of force. In the face of twenty-first century nuclear weapons, however, the Caroline framework seems outdated and impractical. To date, Iran continues to develop their nuclear program, while refusing international inspectors full access to their centrifuges. The United States is committed to keeping a nuclear weapon out of Iran's hands. The United States and Iran …


Iran's Nuclear Program And International Law, Daniel H. Joyner Nov 2013

Iran's Nuclear Program And International Law, Daniel H. Joyner

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

In this article, Professor Daniel Joyner analyzes the legal arguments on both sides of the Iran nuclear issue. The article address what the sides regard as the relevant sources of international nuclear law, and their respective interpretations of these sources law. Professor Joyner argues that Iran’s case illustrates warped and incorrect legal interpretations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and other sources of law, and a prejudicial and inconsistent application of the law by the West and by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The article posits that this warped interpretation of NPT obligations has led to a bleak future for the …


Npt: A Pillar Of Global Governance, Richard Butler Nov 2013

Npt: A Pillar Of Global Governance, Richard Butler

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

The NPT is regarded as the cornerstone of nuclear arms control. It is the sole, widely agreed commitment in international law, to a world free of nuclear weapons. This fact and its operational mechanisms, establish NPT as a pillar of global governance. Any breakout from it, such as the development of nuclear weapons by Iran, a non-nuclear weapons state party to NPT, would jeopardize the future of the treaty and deeply harm the structure of contemporary global governance. If it chooses to do so, Iran cannot be prevented from taking such action by threatening it with the use of force, …


The Iranian Nuclear Issue, The End Of The American Century, And The Future Of International Order, Flynt L. Leverett Nov 2013

The Iranian Nuclear Issue, The End Of The American Century, And The Future Of International Order, Flynt L. Leverett

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

How the U.S.-Iranian competition for influence in the Middle East plays out will have profound consequences not just for the Middle East, but also for the legal frameworks, rules-based regimes, and mechanisms of global governance that shape international order in the 21st century. This is particularly true with regard to U.S.-Iranian disagreements over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities. Strategic competition between America and Iran and its implications for international order play out against a backdrop of the progressive diminution of U.S. leadership in world affairs. Relative decline challenges the United States to share the prerogatives of global governance, especially …


Foreword, Amy C. Gaudion Nov 2013

Foreword, Amy C. Gaudion

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

No abstract provided.


The Future Of American Foreign Policy In The Persian Gulf: How The Study Of Past Presidential Foreign Policies May Predict The Future, Cindy Walters Oct 2013

The Future Of American Foreign Policy In The Persian Gulf: How The Study Of Past Presidential Foreign Policies May Predict The Future, Cindy Walters

M.A. in Political Theory Theses

This thesis will argue that future U.S. foreign policy in the Persian Gulf will be neither realist nor idealist, but a combination of both. The thesis will reveal a trend through thirty three years of presidential administrations toward a more integrated approach of international relations. Future foreign policy will likely blend the idealist and realist positions, as well as the postmodernist approach.


Containment And The Shah: How Eisenhower And The Cia Brought Down Democracy And Encouraged Corrupt Leadership In Iran, Ellie Holliday Oct 2013

Containment And The Shah: How Eisenhower And The Cia Brought Down Democracy And Encouraged Corrupt Leadership In Iran, Ellie Holliday

Ex-Patt Magazine

U.S. relations with Iran are beginning to thaw. Why were they frozen to begin with?


The Politics Of Ahmadinejad And Chavez: A Misplaced Comparison, Seyed Ahmad Mirtaheri Aug 2013

The Politics Of Ahmadinejad And Chavez: A Misplaced Comparison, Seyed Ahmad Mirtaheri

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This piece illustrates that comparing the political and economic impact of Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on their respective countries based solely on generalizations regarding similarities in foreign policy discourse is an unwarranted analytical jump. To identify the essential difference between the two administrations, the article pays attention to the different domestic politics in each country. Ahmadinejad’s populism seems to fit best within neoliberal populism. In stark contrast, Chavista socialism can be understood as a “heterodox” or “alternative” economic policy.


Rhode Island Helps To Weaken Iranian Regime, Donna M. Hughes Dr. Jul 2013

Rhode Island Helps To Weaken Iranian Regime, Donna M. Hughes Dr.

Donna M. Hughes

No abstract provided.


Cyber Attack: A Dull Tool To Sharpen Foreign Policy, Emilio Iasiello Jun 2013

Cyber Attack: A Dull Tool To Sharpen Foreign Policy, Emilio Iasiello

Emilio Iasiello

This paper examines how cyber attacks, if indeed conducted by nation states, have been unsuccessful in supporting states' foreign policy objectives. By analyzing three prominent case studies, I show that as a result of geopolitical tensions, cyber attacks were implemented to further nation state objectives in support of foreign policy considerations and failed to achieve their respective outcomes despite successful deployment against their intended targets. The three case studies, hypothetical scenarios because attribution has not been confirmed, include: (1) the October 2012 distributed denial of service attacks targeting the U.S. banking sector; (2) the 2012 Stuxnet attack against Iran; and …


A Decade Of Failure; Missed Opportunities And The Escalating Crisis Over Iran's Nuclear Program, Louis Charbonneau Jan 2013

A Decade Of Failure; Missed Opportunities And The Escalating Crisis Over Iran's Nuclear Program, Louis Charbonneau

Dissertations and Theses

For the past decade the United States and its European allies powers have been unable to persuade the Islamic Republic of Iran to halt what appears to be a program to develop either a nuclear-weapons capability or an actual atomic arsenal. There is good reason to want to prevent Iran from acquiring atomic weapons, although it is too late to stop Tehran from acquiring the capability to produce a nuclear weapon should it choose to manufacture one. Tehran‘s desire to develop either a nuclear weapons capability or an actual arsenal is based on a realist assessment of its security environment …


Syria: Not Libya, But Let’S Treat It Like It Is Anyway, Eric A. Heinze Jan 2013

Syria: Not Libya, But Let’S Treat It Like It Is Anyway, Eric A. Heinze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The articles by Condoleezza Rice and Simon Adams advance a series of disquieting possibilities for the future of Syria if the US and other states fail to act. While I am sympathetic to the urgency with which both writers advance their claims, there is much strained and stretched logic—as well as outright naiveté—in both authors' arguments, especially Rice's.


Immortal Stalemate: U.S.-Iranian Relations & The Diversionary Theory Of War, Namdar Hosseinzadeh Jan 2013

Immortal Stalemate: U.S.-Iranian Relations & The Diversionary Theory Of War, Namdar Hosseinzadeh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Plagued by diverging security interests, the United States and Iran have been unable to formally reestablish diplomatic relations since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Since 1989, the political environment in Iran underwent drastic changes with the passing of Ayatollah Khomeini. For the next sixteen years Iranian presidents attempted to normalize relations with the U.S. through various political, economic and social initiatives. It appeared as though the hostile relationship between the two countries was slowly becoming friendly. With the emergence of controversial populist president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the years of diplomatic progress between the U.S. and Iran were quickly reversed. In this …


Democratic Peace Theory As Applied To Europe And The Middle East, Patrick G. Rear Jan 2013

Democratic Peace Theory As Applied To Europe And The Middle East, Patrick G. Rear

Global Tides

Peace has been the goal of many leaders throughout history, and recent democratic movements in the Middle East have made the first steps toward a democratic peace in the region. This paper compares the European experience of Germany and France in the transition to democracy with the recent developments in the Middle East through November 2012. The impact of democratic revolution in Egypt is compared with the government established in Iraq following the U.S. invasion. Already, notable changes can be seen in the bilateral relations between Egypt and Israel, and between Iraq and Iran, which this paper attempts to evaluate …