Academic and policy research agenda
I study the governance of dual-use technology with a focus on nuclear proliferation, north-south relations, and sanctions. My research examines international, US, and regional efforts to build regimes to regulate the diffusion of nuclear technology and how this has unfolded in the Middle East since 1974. I am interested in why states of the region have pursued nuclear weapons and the efforts to stop them; how these efforts have unfolded amidst changes in the international system; and the consequences of this contestation of the atom for the actors involved. I research these questions through the lenses of history and international relations using qualitative methods to reach empirical conclusions and draw lessons relevant to scholars and policymakers alike.
UN Project: Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone (2019-23)
I was a Researcher on the Middle East WMD-Free Zone Project at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. This four year project funded by the European Union had four objectives: To fill an important research gap related to how the issue of the ME WMDFZ has evolved over time, including lessons for current and future prospects; to build analytic capacity to support new thinking on regional security issues and the Zone, including drawing on lessons from the establishment of other regional nuclear free zones; to collect ideas and develop new proposals on how to move forward on this issue; and to foster inclusive dialogue among experts and policymakers on regional security issues and the Zone, which in turn could contribute to ongoing multilateral processes.
Postdoctoral Project: Bombs, Banks, and Sanctions: A Sociology of the Transnational Legal Field of Nuclear Nonproliferation (2017-22)
I was a Postdoctoral Fellow on the Bombs, Banks, and Sanctions Project in the Global Governance Centre at the Graduate Institute Geneva. This five year project funded by the European Research Council focused on the implementation of nuclear nonproliferation sanctions against Iran and creation of a global system of surveillance of the financial dealings of all states, banks and individuals, fostered by UN Security Council Resolutions and US and EU sanctions since 9/11. I studied this “transnational legal order” by analyzing how actors, institutions, and legal technologies shaped the processes of norm-creation and rules-implementation in the field of nonproliferation. I used a multi-methods approach, combining interview-based methods and archival research to study these processes in different contexts.
Book Project (Doctoral Dissertation): The Shah & the Atom: An International History of the the Iranian Nuclear Program in the 1970s
My book project based on my doctoral dissertation explores the global debate in the 1970s around the opportunities and risks posed by nuclear technology triggered by the 1973 oil crisis and 1974 Indian nuclear test. I shed new light on this debate by studying the Iranian nuclear program, US policy, and nonproliferation regime together. The manuscript draws on American, British, French, German, and Iranian documents and interviews and is informed by the recent scholarship on the global Cold War, international nuclear history, international economic history, and Pahlavi Studies. Part one of the book manuscript looks at the decision by Iran under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, better known as the shah, to launch one of the most ambitious nuclear programs of the 1970s. I demonstrate the program primarily sought to transform the Iranian economy by shifting a large proportion of the energy consumption of the country from oil to nuclear. The shah believed this would free up oil for export and manufacturing and help rapidly modernize the economy. I also marshal new evidence to show that the secondary goal of the program was a nuclear weapon option.
Part two demonstrates how Iran became the lynchpin of a transnational coalition of nuclear suppliers, recipients, and industry, that challenged US nonproliferation policy. The scholarship has downplayed these challenges to US policy as cynical ploys to access sensitive technology to build nuclear weapons. I show that the coalition, led by Iran, in fact articulated a coherent response to US policy, partly underpinned by genuine interest in the promise of nuclear energy. This is the subject of a journal article published in The International History Review. Part three of the manuscript examines how the United States under Jimmy Carter sought to use nuclear cooperation negotiations with the shah to create a model agreement with strong safeguards he hoped other nuclear suppliers and recipients would adopt. This was an important but understudied element of US nonproliferation efforts, alongside better known endeavors like the creation of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. While an US-Iran agreement was concluded, it was never signed for a range of reasons, including U.S. suspicion of Iranian motives. My manuscript overall suggests greater continuity between pre- and post-revolution Iranian nuclear policy than scholars have previously held.
Farzan Sabet 