Summary of Barry Posen's “A Nuclear Armed Iran,”

Barry Posen argues that it is not such a disaster if Iran
gets nuclear weapons.

He says that there are three things
that they could do.

First, Iran could give the weapons to
terrorists.  But he says that Iran will not do this because of what would happen to them
if they did.  He says a country that found out that Iran had provided the weapon that
was used to attack them would attack Iran with many nuclear weapons.  This threat will
stop Iran from giving weapons to terrorists.

Second, Iran
could blackmail countries with the threat of nuclear weapons.  Posen says those
countries would turn to the US for help rather than giving
in.

Finally, Iran could use the weapons to deter anyone
from attacking them.  They could then go out and destabilize other countries with
impunity.  Posen says this won't work -- countries can reform themselves in ways that
will prevent Iran from destabilizing them.