Countering Proliferation: The Iran Nuclear Negotiations (2002–15)

Abstract

The prevention of Iranian nuclear proliferation presented the EU collectively and the ‘E3’ of Germany, France and the UK individually with one of their most difficult foreign policy challenges in recent years. The chapter begins with a brief background to the crisis. It then examines German and British national interests and objectives in seeking to lead the international response alongside France. It shows how their ad hoc ‘E3’ leadership group simultaneously set them apart from, but also increasingly depended upon the support of, their other EU partners, exemplified by the need to maintain the sanctions regime the EU imposed on Iran throughout the period of the negotiations and upon which the E3’s leadership credibility was based.