Iran and the Bomb

Reviews / Votes

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. 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. 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. 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. 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.