Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrate the signing of a nuclear fuel swap agreement among the countries, in Tehran, on May 17, 2010.
AP Photo

"Being "Smart" with "Smart Power": Why Should Washington Accept the Tehran Nuclear Declaration?"

Op-Ed, Center for Strategic Research

June 9, 2010

Author: Kayhan Barzegar, Former Associate, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program, 2010–2011; Former Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/international Security Program, 2007–2010

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: International Security; Managing the Atom; Science, Technology, and Public Policy

In mere hours after the Iran-Turkey-Brazil nuclear deal on May 17, 2010, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton rebuffed the deal and insisted on what appeared to be a pre-determined course of action to impose a new round of sanctions on Iran. Washington's attempt to thwart the growing importance of rising powers like Turkey and Brazil in establishing a role for themselves as arbiters of regional and global peace and security, may be fruitful in the short-term, it will prove a strategic blunder in the long-term and an indication of the United States' ineptitude at using smart power.

There are many indications that such a posture goes beyond the concerns of nuclear proliferation and addresses much wider issues relating to the present international system founded in 1945. The response to Tehran Nuclear Declaration should be interpreted as an attempt to maintain the Great Powers' traditional authority in the existing international political-security order, first and foremost at the United Nations' Security Council. And this is why Washington's reversion to the policy of "threat and coercion", has attracted the support of those declining powers who once enjoyed great power status such as Britain, France and Russia.

With the transformation of the nature and sources of international threats, which have emerged predominantly in the form of asymmetric threats and concerning issues of human security, the future resolution of global and regional political-security crises will depend on close cooperation between the great powers and rising regional players.

Barak Obama was in part elected president because of his promise to "change" the United States' global and regional strategic orientation and thinking....

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