Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions Debate

November 26, 2012

Be it resolved, the world cannot tolerate an Iran with nuclear weapons capability…

It has been rightly characterized as the toughest foreign policy challenge in a generation: how should the world respond to Iran’s nuclear ambitions? For some, the case for a preemptive strike on Iran is ironclad. An Iranian bomb would flood the volatile Middle East with nuclear weapons and trap Israel in a state of perilous insecurity—along with much of the world’s oil supply.

Others argue that a nuclear Iran could be the very stabilizing force that the region needs, as the threat of nuclear war makes conventional conflicts more risky. These same voices also ask: can the West and Israel afford to attack Iran when doing so could rollback the Arab Spring and re-entrench reactionary forces throughout the Middle East?