Sanctions and Nuclear Rollback: The Case of Iran

The possibility that a nuclear-armed Iran may trigger a regional or global catastrophe has galvanized the debate over how the international community should react to such a threat. Although there was a consensus that decisive action was needed, there was little agreement among analysts or policy makers on what type of coercive measure to employ to roll back the program. After years of delays, the United States and other big powers settled on a carefully calibrated type of sanctions - smart sanctions - subsequently upgraded to super-smart sanctions. In a major victory for the international community, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed on July 14, 2015. This historic agreement obligated Iran to dramatically curtail its nuclear project in return for sanctions relief. The objective of this study is to analyze how these ssactions forced the Islamic Republic to drastically curb its nuclear program, once a symbol of national pride on which vast resources were lavished. This study hypothesizes that the regime made this highly painful decision because economic collapse triggered an acute state of social anomie that threatened its legitimacy and therefore its survival.