Nuclear Proliferation Theory and Practice: the Case of Iran
type: CreativeWork
description: The ‘Iran Nuclear Problem' has come to absorb much media, policymaking, and academic energy. In the academic realm, most studies offer mono-causal policy-oriented explanations for Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability. With some contrast, this paper offers a multi-causal explanation for Iran's pursuit, suggesting that drivers of Iran's nuclear ambitions exist at the international, national, and individual levels of influence on state behavior. It illustrates this with a three-lensed theoretical analysis of Iranian security policy from the perspectives of the neo-realist, strategic culture, and nuclear "mythmaking” models of analysis. In so doing, it finds that that the structured application of multiple academic theories can generate real-world insights into state behavior, and that the indicators generated by the mythmaking model, in particular, are quite practical for U.S. policy toward Iran.
abstract: The ‘Iran Nuclear Problem' has come to absorb much media, policymaking, and academic energy. In the academic realm, most studies offer mono-causal policy-oriented explanations for Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability. With some contrast, this paper offers a multi-causal explanation for Iran's pursuit, suggesting that drivers of Iran's nuclear ambitions exist at the international, national, and individual levels of influence on state behavior. It illustrates this with a three-lensed theoretical analysis of Iranian security policy from the perspectives of the neo-realist, strategic culture, and nuclear "mythmaking” models of analysis. In so doing, it finds that that the structured application of multiple academic theories can generate real-world insights into state behavior, and that the indicators generated by the mythmaking model, in particular, are quite practical for U.S. policy toward Iran.
author: Hoyt, B. Bates
keywords: proliferation, Iran, nuclear weapons, international security, mythmaking, Defense and Security Studies
date published: 2012-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:16:23Z
provider: Missouri State University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Missouri State University