Iran’s Nuclear Proliferation – Challenge or Survival Opportunity for The Common Foreign and Security Policy?
Nicoleta LĂŞAN
Abstract: The European Union has maintained for decades a low profile in fighting nuclear proliferation and became strongly preoccupied with this subject in the last decade, although its first actions in the field date back to the 1980s. Fighting nuclear proliferation is part of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, and this is obvious when one considers that the European Strategy against Weapons of Mass Destruction and the European Union Security Strategy have both been adopted in 2003. The European Union perceived the fight against nuclear proliferation as being an area in which it can successfully act and restore its credibility as major player in international security, credibility which was seriously affected by the split during the Iraq war. The Iranian nuclear crisis was intentionally chosen by the European Union to revive the Common Foreign and Security Policy and develop a genuine common policy in the field of nuclear non-proliferation. It remains to be seen whether in the end the Iranian case can be labeled as a survival opportunity for CFSP or a challenge that only added more problems to an already sensitive area.
Keywords: EU foreign policy, nuclear proliferation, Iran, EU WMD Strategy