A Comparison of the Unilateral and Multilateral Approaches of the United States towards the Nuclear Program of Iran

Iran’s nuclear program is one of the major issues in the relationship of Iran and the United States after the Islamic Revolution. The United States different and ambiguous positions towards the nuclear program of Iran have played a significant role in prolongation and ups and down of the problem. The two approaches of unilateralism and multilateralism are among the most important positions. During George Bush (Junior) presidency, the United States was pursuing unilateralist policies and playing the role of a hegemon. In the last years of Bush administration due to weak policy in the Middle East, it changed into multilateralism. With the arrival of Obama into White House, the United States pursued multilateral policies in various areas including Iranian nuclear program. The outcome of this policy was negotiation with Iran on nuclear program and cooperation with the 5 group of countries and a change in Iran’s position. The present article by a comparative approach wants to compare the two approaches of the United States. The main question of the article is “how can we compare the approaches of Bush administration and Obama administration about Iranian nuclear program?” The underlying hypothesis is that the comparison of the policies of the two administrations shows that hegemony and militarism is the indicators of unilateralism and international cooperation and institutionalism are important indicators of multilateralism.