Nuclear Iran : the birth of an atomic state / David Patrikarakos.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-329) and index.

pt. I. A surge into modernity: the nuclear programme 1957-2001. In the beginning was the atom bomb: nuclear power and the post-war world -- Two centuries of loss: Iran at the advent of nuclear power -- The peacock wants to strut: nuclear power under the Shah -- Arms and the Shah: nuclear weapons under the Shah -- Slow decline, quick fall: the end of the Shah's programme -- Children of the revolution: a year of chaos, 1979 -- Restart all along, 1980-9 -- Iran's Islamic bomb? Nuclear weapons under the Islamic Republic -- Restart for real: the programme goes live, 1980-2002 -- Prologue to the nuclear clash, 1980-97 -- Aghazadeh's mission: acceleration, 1997-2002 -- part II. The greater game: the Iranian nuclear crisis, 2002-12. Crisis, 2002-3 -- From Tehran to Paris and beyond, 2003-5 -- Enter Ahmadinejad: reversing into the future, 2002-5 -- Enter Obama: nuclear détente? 2008-10 -- The end of diplomacy? The non-diplomatic alternative, 2010-12 -- Conclusion -- Appendixes : A. Stages of the nuclear fuel cycle ; B. Iran's nuclear power fuel cycle ; C. The nuclear weapons cycle.

The Iranian nuclear crisis has dominated world politics since the beginning of the century, with Iran now facing increasing diplomatic isolation, talk of military strikes against its nuclear facilities and a disastrous Middle East war. There is little real understanding of Iran's nuclear program, in particular its history, which is now over fifty years old. This groundbreaking book, unprecedented in its scope, argues that the history of Iran's nuclear program and the modern history of the country itself are irretrievably linked; only by understanding one can we understand the other. From the program's beginnings under the Shah of Iran, the book details the US's central role in the birth of nuclear Iran and, through the relationship between the program's founder and the Shah of Iran himself, the role that weapons have played in the program since the beginning. David Patrikarakos's unique access to "the father" of Iran's nuclear program, as well as to key scientific personnel under the early Islamic Republic and to senior Iranian and Western officials at the center of today's negotiations, sheds new light on the uranium enrichment program that lies at the heart of global concerns.