Nuclear Decision-Making in Iran

In this seminar, Dr. Ariane Tabatabai discusses key findings and implications from her recent study of Iranian nuclear decision-making. Understanding Iranian nuclear decision-making is central for policy and analysis of the ongoing tensions related to the Iranian nuclear program, but has received less scholarly attention than other areas of Iranian decision-making. This study addresses three following fundamental questions: What drives Iran's nuclear thinking? Which key power centers draw the contours of the country's nuclear policy? What are the implications for shaping nonproliferation policies? Dr. Tabatabai will provide brief introductory comments, followed by discussion.

Ariane M. Tabatabai is the Middle East Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and an adjunct senior research scholar at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). She is also a Truman national security fellow and a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) term member. Prior to joining GMF, Tabatabai served as an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation, the director of curriculum and a visiting assistant professor of security studies at the Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and an international civilian consultant for NATO. Previously, Tabatabai was a post-doctoral fellow in the International Security Program and a Stanton nuclear security fellow in the International Security Program and the Project on Managing the Atom at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs where she was also an associate. She is the author of the forthcoming No Conquest, No Defeat - Iran's National Security Strategy and the co-author of Triple Axis: Iran's Relations With Russia and China. She has published widely in academic, policy, and mainstream outlets, including International Security, the Journal of Strategic Studies, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy. Tabatabai holds a Ph.D. in war studies from King's College London and is a native French and Persian speaker.

The report will be circulated two days prior to the seminar, and can also be accessed here: https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/research/report/nuclear-decision-making-iran-implications-us-nonproliferation-efforts