Essay on Public Opinion on the Iran Nuclear Deal

There are many different perspectives on the nuclear deal with Iran. There has been an ongoing dispute between Iran and America for decades over controversial foreign policies. As the tensions rise every year, each country faces the threat of a regional war. It has been a controversial topic ever since it was beginning to be talked about. David Adesnik, FPI's policy director, said that American voters liked the idea of an agreement to “prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons”. However, they did not like what Obama had negotiated with Iran (Adesnik, 1). Milena Sterio, dean at Cleveland State University Marshall College of Law, wrote a journal entry depicting what Obama had done. Obama put strong restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions. They would also have inspections of suspicious sites (Sterio, 76). Adesnik states that support fell among both political parties since July. Many people did not agree with what Obama had to say, especially in Congress. Forty-nine percent of respondents in a Poll done by CNN in 2015, wanted Congress to reject the nuclear deal (Adesnik, 1). Many citizens from the US wanted the deal abolished, and others thought it was novel. With more and more perspectives about the nuclear deal growing, how are the different cultures reacting to this political decision? Iranian and American culture has been affected substantially as more and more opinions and perspectives continue to grow on the issue. The Iran nuclear deal greatly impacted the way both cultures and citizens were viewed.

The American culture greatly changed when the deal was enacted. Americans had many different perspectives on what should be done. Thoughts on Barack Obama, the current president at the time, changed as more and more people began to oppose the deal. Many polls were conducted from new networks including: CNN, Pew, CBS, and Quinnipiac Pew’s poll showed that 49 percent of respondents opposed the nuclear deal. While a poll done by Monmouth showed that only 32 percent of people were opposed to the deal. However, as months progressed, Adesnik states there was an obvious outlier. A poll done by the Washington Post-ABC found that “56 percent of respondents supported the deal with Iran, while 37 opposed the deal” (Adesnik, 2). Why did Americans have so many different views on the Iranian nuclear deal? Paul R. Pillar, a retired CIA officer, believes that presumptions have caused many Americans to have a different view on the Iranian culture. He claims that these presumptions have made Americans look at the consequences with the deal. Pillar argues that this is a problem because Americans have speculated too much about Iran. This drastically changed the American’s views on Iran and its culture. He also claims that American’s judgement on other countries is due to the past relations with the outside world. Their attitudes have been shaped by the most memorable parts of history: war. Pillar believes Americans need a villain in order to feel good and to have a role in politics (Pillar, 367). These are some reasons why Americans view Iran so negatively and why there is so much conflict within America over the deal. Many people didn’t like what Obama did and others were beginning to question what would happen in the future. With many speculations coming up about Iran, the American people began to shape their own view on Iranian culture and the nuclear deal.

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Many people thought that Iran would react in a certain way. These views diverged on what had happened in the past. Iranian leaders have shown in the last three decades that they respond to foreign challenges with the same consideration to cost, benefits, destruction, and the impact on regime as every other leader (Pillar, 366). Thomas Juneau, the author of ‘The Enduring Constraints on Iran’s Power after the Nuclear Deal’, claims that Iran “aspires to be the dominant power in the Persian Gulf” (Juneau, 45). He says that this caused many Iranian people to have a certain belief that they need to be at the top. When the nuclear deal caused the growing assumptions on Iran, many people began in Iran believed that they needed to show that they were powerful (Juneau, 47). Gregory Shank, the author of ‘Anatomy of a Done Deal: The Fight over the Iran Nuclear Accord’, believes the Iranian nuclear deal contributed the hiding of Iranian contributions and culture to the world. He claims that the deal hindered Iran's technological advances, including boosting a successful space program. This made many of the people in Iran upset. They also supplied a lot of oil and gas to other countries and were not given much credit (Shank, 1). Iran has had many different views that defined them. Iran is trying to show who they are as a country but there are many assumptions that have been made.

The assumptions on Iran have impacted the way Iranian culture has been viewed. However, with the nuclear deal enacted more and more assumptions over Iran begin to grow. Adam Tarock, a retired professor at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne Australia, as looked into these assumptions about Iran. He claims that the perception of Iran has persisted for decades, even though neither Western or Israeli intelligence services have valid evidence that Iran has engaged in weaponization. He also shows that the UN has never declared Iran to be in violation of the NPT (Tarock, 1409). As more and more assumptions about the Iranian culture are made, the more the culture continues to change. There is a negative cognition on Iran that doesn’t resemble who they are as a nation. These assumptions emerge from many foreign policies that Iran is a part of. Paul Pillar also claimed that assumptions have greatly impacted Iranian culture and even how the world views Iran. He states that Americans think the Iranian leaders are religiously drawn radicals who dislike western ideas and leaders. He argues that this simply does not display the behaviors of the Iranian leaders from the last three decades (Pillar, 370-372). Assumptions have caused the world to view Iran negatively and that has greatly affected the cultures of America and Iran. These assumptions also affect the way the world reacts to conflict and how a view can change an entire culture. Trump recently withdrew from the nuclear deal, which added to more assumptions about Iran. It forms a level of mistrust with both countries which creates more conflict.

Both American and Iranian culture were greatly impacted by the Iran nuclear deal. As these societies begin to change more and more other cultures become affected. American culture was split between on what was right and wrong. Many people had different perspectives on what to do and how Obama should’ve handled the problem (Adesnik, 1-3). Americans also had no big foreign enemies at the time which made Iran the perfect choice for them. This caused the view on Iranian culture to shift into a more negative perspective Iranian culture was drastically hit due to the many assumptions made about Iranian culture. As more and more assumptions were made about Iran, the worse the culture had become to look (Pillar, 366-367). Things that most Iranian people were proud about were ignored due to the assumptions made by Americans and the world. With more assumptions about the Iran culture emerging, the cultures of other countries are greatly impacted. (Shank, 1). The relations between Iran and American affected the culture by altering the perspectives of the people in the cultures. As more assumptions, made by Americans, were formed, the more Iranian culture was viewed in a negative way. The Iran nuclear deal changed the way not only America but the world viewed Iranian culture and its people.