• Research
  • Strategic Europe
  • About
  • Experts
Carnegie Europe logoCarnegie lettermark logo
EUDemocracy
  • Donate
{
  "authors": [
    "George Perkovich"
  ],
  "type": "legacyinthemedia",
  "centerAffiliationAll": "dc",
  "centers": [
    "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"
  ],
  "collections": [
    "U.S. Nuclear Policy"
  ],
  "englishNewsletterAll": "ctw",
  "nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
  "primaryCenter": "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
  "programAffiliation": "NPP",
  "programs": [
    "Nuclear Policy"
  ],
  "projects": [],
  "regions": [
    "North America",
    "United States",
    "Middle East",
    "Iran",
    "United Kingdom"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Nuclear Policy"
  ]
}
REQUIRED IMAGE

REQUIRED IMAGE

In The Media

Five Scenarios for the Iranian Crisis

Link Copied
By George Perkovich
Published on Dec 26, 2006

Source: IFRI

Since August 2005, Iran's campaign to enrich uranium and acquire other technologies and practical experience that would enable it to produce nuclear weapons has gained momentum. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and militant elements in Iran's ruling circle pointedly continue to defy international demands to cease uranium enrichment while the International Atomic Energy Agency's doubts about the peacefulness of Iran's past nuclear activities remain unresolved - according to the IAEA, Iran has not provided adequate cooperation to help resolve these doubts. This obstinate stance, paired with an aggressive posture toward Israel, has heightened Ahmadinejad's popularity in the wider Arab world, including Sunnis. In an unpredicted and quite ironic way, the Persian Ahmadinejad has become an avatar of Arab nationalism. The popularity of Iran's defiant position has, in turn, hardened Iran's resistance to international policy objectives to constrain the nuclear program.

To continue reading this article, please follow the PDF link above.

About the Author

George Perkovich

Japan Chair for a World Without Nuclear Weapons, Senior Fellow

George Perkovich is the Japan Chair for a World Without Nuclear Weapons and a senior fellow in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Nuclear Policy Program. He works primarily on nuclear deterrence, nonproliferation, and disarmament issues, and is leading a study on nuclear signaling in the 21st century.

    Recent Work

  • Paper
    How to Assess Nuclear ‘Threats’ in the Twenty-First Century

      George Perkovich

  • Commentary
    “A House of Dynamite” Shows Why No Leader Should Have a Nuclear Trigger

      George Perkovich

George Perkovich
Japan Chair for a World Without Nuclear Weapons, Senior Fellow
George Perkovich
Nuclear PolicyNorth AmericaUnited StatesMiddle EastIranUnited Kingdom

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

More Work from Carnegie Europe

  • Commentary
    Strategic Europe
    Why Europe Must Take Charge of its Russia Diplomacy Now

    Trump is distracted and Ukraine wants Europe to step up. The continent’s leaders must find their voice and assert it in talks with Russia.

      Alissa de Carbonnel

  • Commentary
    Strategic Europe
    Taking the Pulse: Enough with the Annual NATO Summits, Already?

    Over the past ten years, NATO has held almost as many summits as it did during the entirety of the Cold War. Are they still useful, or is it time to stop holding annual meetings?

      • Rym Momtaz

      Rym Momtaz, ed.

  • Commentary
    Strategic Europe
    European Sycophancy Worked on Trump

    Nearly a year and a half after Europeans leaned into sucking up to Trump, the strategy has produced some benefits when it comes to Ukraine.

      • Rym Momtaz

      Rym Momtaz

  • Agentic AI Anthropic bot
    Paper
    When AI Agents Attack: Autonomous Cyber Operations and Europe’s Governance Gap

    Autonomous AI agents are increasingly prevalent in cyberspace. The EU needs a real-time monitoring strategy, to invest in AI defenses, and to reduce its strategic dependence on U.S. frontier models.

      Raluca Csernatoni, Patryk Pawlak

  • Commentary
    Strategic Europe
    Taking the Pulse: Has Meloni Broken MAGA’s Civilizational Axis?

    When Giorgia Meloni very publicly rebuked Donald Trump’s disparaging remarks about her, it surprised many who saw her as a European extension of Trumpism. Is the spat a sign of trouble in the radical right’s transatlantic axis?

      • Rym Momtaz

      Rym Momtaz, ed.

Get more news and analysis from
Carnegie Europe
Carnegie Europe logo, white
Rue du Congrès, 151000 Brussels, Belgium
  • Research
  • Strategic Europe
  • About
  • Experts
  • Projects
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Privacy
  • For Media
  • Gender Equality Plan
Get more news and analysis from
Carnegie Europe
© 2026 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. All rights reserved.