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Iran and the Bomb

The United States, Iran, and the Nuclear Question
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Iran and the Bomb

By: Sina Azodi
Narrated by: Sina Azodi
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Iran’s nuclear program remains one of the most contentious issues of modern international politics. This book is the first to trace the evolution of Iran’s nuclear strategy (program) in the broader context of its relationship with the United States, from the early days of total US support in the 1950s to the staunch opposition that followed the Iranian revolution, and its reconstitution.

The account covers the pivotal moments including initial meetings to pursue uranium enrichment in Iran, key internal debates, the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Donald Trump’s controversial withdrawal and the latest efforts to revive the agreement. The book shows that because the strategic logic of the nuclear program transcends the regimes type, dismantling the Iranian nuclear program is not viable policy option for the United States. Instead, the US must learn to live with a nuclear threshold state and make it a priority to keep Iranian capacity as far away from the bomb as possible.

The research is based on American declassified documents and often marginalized Iranian primary sources including political memoirs, diplomatic correspondences, oral histories from Iranian nuclear officials and exclusive one-on-one interviews with Iranian scientists and national security officials. The account and its findings have important implications for both scholars of nuclear non-proliferation and for policymakers.©2026 Sina Azodi (P)2026 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Middle East Military Politics & Government War & Crisis Weapons & Warfare
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Critic reviews

Sina Azodi’s book is an excellent history and analysis of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. He explains the motivational and strategic logic of the program, tilting neither toward bias nor off-putting detachment. Azodi cares about the issue, but this helps rather than hinders his analysis. His sourcing is unprecedented and original, which makes this book essential reading for anyone who is interested in the issue of nuclear proliferation, Iran’s foreign policy and Middle East politics. (Ross Harrison, Senior Fellow Middle East Institute, Washington, DC, US)
Dr Azodi brings empathetic balance to the highly polarized issue of Iran’s nuclear quest. His assessments are carefully weighed, and his evidence draws equally on Iranian and American primary sources. The comprehensive narrative presented by Iran and the Bomb is insightful, even for observers well acquainted with the subject. (Mark Fitzpatrick, Associate Fellow, International Institute for Strategic Studies, US (former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for NonProliferation))
Dr. Sina Azodi has written a lucid, informed history of Iran’s nuclear program, using Iranian and American sources to clarify the strategic logic and the intense domestic disputes behind it. Clear-eyed, incisive, and richly documented, this is a compelling analysis of one of the defining security challenges of our time. A must-read. (Professor Mohsen Milani, author of Iran’s Rise and Rivalry with the United States in the Middle East)
Iran and the Bomb offers an exceptionally useful corrective to prevailing narratives surrounding the Iranian nuclear program. Combining rigorous historical research, new interviews with American officials and rich novel insights from Iranian sources, Sina Azodi has produced a riveting account of the Iranian politics and perceptions, and American misunderstandings, which have driven the ongoing conflict over its nuclear weapons program dating back to the Shah and ranging across successive American administrations. (Professor Marc Lynch, The George Washington University, and author of America's Middle East: The Ruination of a Region)
Sina Azodi has provided us with a comprehensive and timely history of Iran’s nuclear program. Thoroughly researched and highly readable, this book covers over five decades of Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear program, provides fresh insights into the motivations and strategies that have guided the program and takes the reader through the maze of international crisis that it has generated. This is a valuable addition to the study of Iran, and a must read for scholars and policy makers, and all those interested in how Iran’s nuclear program has come to dominate its relations with the West. (Vali Nasr, Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University, us and author of Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History)
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