https://padlet.com/travishester/26znw74f1nx6 Facing Down Regional Aspirations and Nuclear Weapons en-us 2018-12-16 19:54:43 UTC 2018-12-17 00:20:15 UTC hello@padlet.com travishester https://padlet.com/travishester/26znw74f1nx6/wish/315020551 When the British were kicked out in the early 1950's, the United States became the dominant influence on the country. With America's support, the shah launched a program of modernization, the White Revolution, intending to bring the empire back to its former glory. In return for technical support and military hardware, Iran acted as a proxy for the United States to police the middle east. This collaboration worked until the 1970's, when it became clear that Iran's economic growth came at the cost of religious discontent and the marginalization of different social classes. ]]> 2018-12-16 22:18:23 UTC https://padlet.com/travishester/26znw74f1nx6/wish/315020551 travishester https://padlet.com/travishester/26znw74f1nx6/wish/315022859 After the the shah's modernization plan began to fall apart in the 1970's, several factions rose up to take control of Iran in what was to be called the Iranian Revolution. The first factor responsible for this was Jimmy Carter's foreign policy that focused on enforcing human rights. He asked the shah to rein in SAVAK, the Iranian secret police and by far one of the worst human rights violators, which cost the shah his ability to monitor the growing opposition to his reign. The second factor was the shah's worsening condition as he fought cancer. When protesters took to the streets, he was apparently too ill to make effective decisions.]]> 2018-12-16 22:48:04 UTC https://padlet.com/travishester/26znw74f1nx6/wish/315022859 travishester https://padlet.com/travishester/26znw74f1nx6/wish/315024341 Iran has been aiming for a spot as the world's 10th nuclear state for a while, and there's been some debate on what the U.S. should do about it. Nobody is really comfortable with Iran possessing nuclear weapons. Iran has a reputation for being rather aggressive, and giving it the capability to drop nukes certainly wouldn't help. Iran has continued to construct centrifuges and enrich uranium, refusing to slow down its nuclear program to the point that it would no longer be able to produce weapons. ]]> 2018-12-16 23:09:11 UTC https://padlet.com/travishester/26znw74f1nx6/wish/315024341 travishester https://padlet.com/travishester/26znw74f1nx6/wish/315026134 There are several issues the U.S. needs to address in regards to its relationship with Iran. Its short-term issues are the Iranian nuclear weapons program, the related confrontation between Iran and Israel, and the potential for Iranian-American cooperation in the world. The United States seeks to have Tehran abandon its nuclear weapons program and to place its nuclear industry under international monitoring. There's also the long-term issue of the future of American-Iranian relations. For Americans the ideal solution would be to transform Iran from theocratic authoritarianism into some form of political democracy which would lead to a friendlier encounter with the United States than the current regime. ]]> 2018-12-16 23:36:29 UTC https://padlet.com/travishester/26znw74f1nx6/wish/315026134