Coercive Diplomacy by the EU: The Case of Iran

The European Union has been the main international actor trying to contain the Iranian nuclear programme. In 2003, for the first time ever, the EU-3 adopted a coercive diplomatic approach vis-à-vis Iran. The current paper begins with an analysis of the concept of coercive diplomacy before applying it to the Iranian case. In so doing, the paper aims to make an interim assessment of the European (EU-3) effort.

About the author

Before joining the Department of Politics at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) as lecturer in 2004, Tom Sauer was a Post-Doctoral research fellow at the Institute for International and European Policy at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). His major research focus is International Security, and in particular (nuclear) arms control, proliferation, and disarmament. E-mail: Tom.Sauer@ua.ac.be

More information

Information is available at the secretariat of the Clingendael Diplomatic Studies Programme of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, tel. 070-3746605 or email.