Kittrie: Emboldened By Impunity

Orde Kittrie (Arizona State - Law) has published Emboldened By Impunity: The History and Consequences of Failure to Enforce Iranian Violations of International Law (Syracuse L. Rev., Vol. 57, no. 3, 2007). Here's the abstract:

This paper details how the Islamic Republic of Iran has flouted international law with impunity over the last three decades, a trend that has accelerated in recent years and become more dangerous with Iran's illegal pursuit of nuclear weapons. Part I reviews Iran's history of unpunished violent breaches of international law, including the seizure of U.S. diplomats for over a year, the Iranian-directed bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, the bombings of the Israeli Embassy and Jewish cultural center in Argentina, Iranian assassinations of dissidents in Europe, President Ahmadinejad's repeated urgings that Israel be wiped off the map, and Iran's support for and harboring of terrorists. Part II of the paper examines the Iranian regime's ideology.

Part III details Iran's violations of international laws relating to nuclear nonproliferation and analyzes the international community's hesitant and tepid response to those violations. The paper finds that Iran's heavy dependence on oil exports and other foreign trade leaves Iran highly vulnerable to strong economic sanctions. Yet the sanctions imposed by UN Security Council Resolution 1737 of December 2006 and Resolution 1747 of March 2007 are remarkably weak, too weak to coerce Iran into compliance, contain Iran's ability to advance its nuclear weapons program, or deter other states from following Iran's lead. As the paper describes, the international community has in recent years witnessed comprehensive sanctions stopping both illicit nuclear weapons programs and terrorism. Yet the sanctions contained in Resolutions 1737 and 1747 are far weaker than the sanctions which stopped the Iraqi and Libyan nuclear weapons programs. The paper concludes that so long as the international community continues to fail to hold Iran accountable for its violations of international law, Iran will likely continue to engage in such violations, with increasingly dangerous consequences.