Nuclear Iran: The Birth of an Atomic State

The Iranian nuclear crisis has dominated current affairs and geopolitics for over a decade. Yet there is little real understanding of Iran's nuclear programme, in particular its history, which is now over fifty years old. This ground-breaking book argues that the history of Iran's nuclear programme and the modern history of the country itself are irrevocably linked, and only by understanding one can we understand the other. From the programme's beginnings under the Shah of Iran, the book details the central role of the US in the birth of nuclear Iran, and the role that nuclear weapons have played in the programme since the beginning. The author's unique access to 'the father' of Iran's nuclear programme, as well as to key scientific personnel under the early Islamic Republic and to senior Iranian and Western officials at the centre of today's negotiations, sheds new light on the uranium enrichment programme that lies at the heart of global concerns. What emerges is a programme that has, for a variety of reasons, a deep resonance to Iran. This is why it has persisted with it for over half a century in the face of such widespread opposition. Drawing on years of research across the world, David Patrikarakos has produced the most comprehensive examination of Iran's nuclear programme - in all its forms to date. This new edition features interviews with the main actors who saw through President Obama's Iran nuclear deal, and give the inside story in how progress stalled under the Trump administration.

David Patrikarakos is a writer and journalist who has written for New Statesman, Financial Times, the London Review of Books, Prospect and The Guardian. In 2014 he was appointed a Poynter Fellow at Yale University and is currently a Non-Resident Fellow in the School of Iranian Studies, at the University of St Andrews. He has produced several documentary films, including for the Channel 4 series Dispatches. He is also the author of War in 140 Characters: How Social Media is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century.

Introduction 2. In the beginning was the Atom bomb: Nuclear Power and the Post-War World in the Middle East 3. The Peacock Wants to Strut: Aspiring to Nuclear Power under the Shah of Iran 4. Arms and the Shah: Developing Nuclear Weapons under the Shah 5. Slow Decline - Quick Fall: The End of the Shah's Nuclear Programme 6. Children of the Revolution: ['An Ideologically Unclean Atom Bomb'] 1979-1980 7. Restart? 1980-1984 [Reviving the Nuclear option] 8. We Are Victims: [Iran's Search for New Nuclear Partners] 1984-1989 9. Iran's version of an Islamic Bomb? Nuclear Weapons Under the Early Republic 10. Restart for Real: Iran's Nuclear Programme Goes Live 1990-1997 11. Crisis: Nuclear Negotiations 2002-2005 12. Enter Ahmadinejad: Reversing into the Future 2005-2008 13. Enter Obama: Trying for Nuclear Détente? 14. Qom, the Natanz Site and Everything After 15. Conclusion Appendices etc.