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Source: http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/docs/perspectives123.pdf
Iran: The Flaws of Containment
(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Dustin Dehez - A containment strategy vis-a-vis Iran seems to be the preferred fall-back option for the international community if sanctions fail. But containment will not stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program since Iran is not a rational actor. The Iranian elite still perceives its Islamic revolution as ongoing and the outlook of Shia Islam makes war a less frightening prospect for the Iranian leadership than for any rational actor. It is amidst the ensuing chaos of such war that the Iranian president expects the twelfth Imam to return and establish a new order. A nuclear capability at Tehran's disposal would give the Iranian leadership even more room for aggressive-to-reckless foreign policy maneuvers. Prof. Dustin Dehez is visiting professor at the Centre for European Studies, University of Economics Prague (VSE), and a lecturer in International Relations at the Otto Suhr Institute of the Freie Universitat Berlin. (BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University)