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International Sanctions against Iran under President Ahmadinejad: Explaining Regime Persistence

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  • Borszik, Oliver

Abstract

This paper seeks to explain how Iran's regime persisted in the face of international sanctions during Mahmud Ahmadinejad's presidency, from 2005 to 2013. It reconstructs the interplay between the intensifying UNSC, US and EU sanctions and the targeted regime's strategies to advance the nuclear program and maintain intra-elite cohesion. Initially, the nuclear program was expanded due to high oil income in combination with explicit resistance to the presumed regime-change ambitions of the Western sanction senders. At the end of Ahmadinejad's presidency, the decline of foreign exchange earnings from oil exports and the continued regime-change scenario contributed to the neglect of this regimelegitimizing strategy in favor of the maintenance of intra-elite cohesion. My main argument is that once the US and EU oil and financial sanctions curtailed the cost-intensive further development of the nuclear program, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei used these sanctions as an external stimulus to contain burgeoning factional disputes.

Suggested Citation

  • Borszik, Oliver, 2014. "International Sanctions against Iran under President Ahmadinejad: Explaining Regime Persistence," GIGA Working Papers 260, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:gigawp:260
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gerschewski, Johannes, 2013. "The three pillars of stability: legitimation, repression, and co-optation in autocratic regimes," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 20(1), pages 13-38.
    2. Susan Hannah Allen, 2008. "The Domestic Political Costs of Economic Sanctions," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 52(6), pages 916-944, December.
    3. David Lektzian & Mark Souva, 2007. "An Institutional Theory of Sanctions Onset and Success," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 51(6), pages 848-871, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. SimuÈ› Ciprian, 2016. "The Modern Mind, Religion, and the Spiritual in the Thinking of Frank C. Doan," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 2, ejis_v2_i.
    2. Smeets, Maarten, 2018. "Can economic sanctions be effective?," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2018-03, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.

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