Washington Institute: Serious Play: War Games Explore Options on Iran

Authors: Jeffrey White and Loring White
February 4, 2010

Jeffrey White and Loring White report on three separate war games that provide several insights into why the Iranian nuclear problem is so intractable and how it might develop in the near to mid term.

What if Iran's hardline leadership emerges from the current confrontations at home strengthened and emboldened? If so, the nuclear issue will be back with a vengeance. And three recent war games focused on the Iranian nuclear weapons issue suggest that the prospects for halting the regime's progress toward nuclear weapons are not good.

The games -- conducted by highly respected Western think tanks -- explored various strategies for preventing the Iranian nuclear threat from becoming real. The results, unfortunately, were uniformly negative. Given that these were serious games played by serious people, officials who deal with the nuclear problem as a matter of real policy would be wise to seriously consider their implications.

 

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