Is the U.S. about to ‘cheat’ on the Iran nuclear deal? Here’s how this could backfire Issuing sanctions while Iran is in compliance would be a U.S. violation of the JCPOA

• Published in: Washington Post – Blogs
• Main Author: Vaynman, Jane
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post 17.10.2017
• Subjects: Agreements; Arms control & disarmament; Compliance; Inspections; Nuclear weapons; Sanctions; Iran; United States > US; Union of Soviet Socialist Republics > USSR

The JCPOA includes some of the most intrusive monitoring provisions used in arms control, including on-site inspections and continuous monitoring of some facilities. In a new working paper, Andrew Coe and I argue that in designing monitoring for an arms control agreement, states face a trade-off between having enough transparency to observe compliance and needing sufficient safety from observation that could jeopardize their security. If Iran decides that information sharing in a current nuclear agreement will leave the regime more vulnerable in the future, including beyond the nuclear context, Tehran will have few reasons to renegotiate the deal. Because of this trade-off, states have to make compromises to get an arms control agreement.