Inevitability of a Nuclear Iran?

The report investigates the controversy regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions. It provides Iran's side of the issue, as well as the US position. It reviews Iran's aggressive pursuit of nuclear technical capabilities and investigates why Iran sees itself as a sovereign nation with a legitimate right to pursue the capabilities necessary to develop peaceful nuclear power. Due to the dual-use nature of the technologies involved and the inherent capability to develop nuclear weapons, the United States is extremely concerned Iran is disguising its true intent and fully intends to develop nuclear weapons. The United States is worried that once Iran develops nuclear weapons it will use them to press its regional agenda, as well as provide them to terrorist organizations. The United States is worried a nuclear Iran will work against US national security interests, namely US regional influence, energy resource availability, and the stability of the world's energy market. The research question is, will the United States be able to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power and developing nuclear weapons? The research method used is the "problem solution" approach. The problem is the United States does not want Iran to become a nuclear power; however, Iran continues to pursue its nuclear ambitions. The report looks at several courses of action available to the United States. It investigates and analyzes economic, diplomatic, regime change, and military intervention as potential courses of action. Each course of action is described and a probable outcome is predicted. Based on the predicted outcome, the action's effectiveness is evaluated, as well as its impact on US regional influence, regional stability, energy resource availability, and the stability of the world's energy market. Using the effectiveness and impact analysis, the viability of each course of action is assessed.