UVA Miller Center Article Focuses

 

A financial professional with extensive experience in venture capital and private equity investment, David Colin Burke possesses degrees in finance, law, and international relations from the University of Virginia (UVA). David Colin Burke continues to remain closely associated with his alma mater and serves as a member of the board of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at UVA, a nonpartisan organization that focuses on critical issues of domestic and international policy.

A recent Miller Center article brought focus to the importance of “threading the needle” when it comes to the Biden administration’s stance toward Iran and a potential nuclear deal. The current scenario is one in which President Biden is reorienting the United States toward the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of the Obama era. In doing so, he is shifting from hardline, sanctions-focused policies, which had a net effect of accelerating Iran’s efforts to generate fissile material to create nuclear weapons.

According to the article, there are many cross-pressures at work, from Iran’s proxy wars in Iraq and Yemen, to recent IAEA discoveries of uranium particles at facilities that were previously undisclosed. In addition, the JCPOA has many shortcomings, from verification concerns to enrichment activity timelines that are unrealistically short. The bottom line is that, in order to advance U.S. non-proliferation policy in the region, President Biden is going to need to provide some degree of sanctions relief.