Iran’s Loss of Power in the Global Economic Network
With Iran’s rise as a potential nuclear power, it is no surprise that Israel, along with its Western allies, is becoming increasingly worried. Military action, however, seems unlikely considering the little success US had in Iraq and Afghanistan…at least for now. Instead, Israel and its allies continue to impose sanctions against Iran, with the hope of straining the latter’s economy so much that it eventually taps out.
Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited France’s President Francois Hollande to press for more Iran sanctions. During the meeting, Hollande said, “we must make sure that through pressure, sanctions and later through negotiations, Iran renounces its intention to have access to nuclear weapons.”
In a way, Hollande’s statement summarizes the only realistic way of dealing with Iran’s nuclear threat. The potential risks that come with war are far too much for Israel or any of its allies at the moment. Economic sanction, on the other hand, is a less provocative method that reduces Iran’s power in the global economic network, which in turn weakens its capabilities of developing nuclear weapons.
The picture above is a simplification of Iran’s position in the global economic network. With many big Western countries/entities (ex. EU, US) imposing economic sanctions—all to a different degree—against Iran, Iran’s position in this network becomes much weaker because it now has fewer neighbors to trade with. In fact, its situation is even worse than it seems. Because each country/entity has different economic power, each edge in this network has different weight. Unfortunately for Iran, most of the edges being “cut off” contain significant weights (because they link to big countries/entities), which lead to a great loss of power.
Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-30/netanyahu-visits-france-to-press-for-more-iran-sanctions
– jf