Negotiating Iran's Nuclear Program: Law and Policy Issues March 29, 2013

This project examines critically the course of nuclear negotiations between the IAEA, Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany with a focus on four critical junctures at which a negotiated solution might have been attained but was not.. Those missed opportunities for a resolution of the nuclear dilemma arose in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2009-10. This project studies these episodes to consider two questions: what regime design lessons concerning dispute resolution might be learned from past missed opportunities; and what common elements in Western and Iranian proposals might offer a framework for resolving the Iranian nuclear file and strengthening IAEA mechanisms in future cases. As the second term of the Obama administration begins and Iran heads towards its next presidential elections, analyzing these questions may enable greater success as a new window of opportunity emerges.