North Korea’s nuclear test should remind the world that what counts in politics is results rather than rhetoric. Especially since the “Axis of Evil” speech of January 2002, the Bush administration has pursued ideology-based policies that have failed in the real world. The US has not achieved a basic level of success with any one of the members of the Axis: North Korea, Iraq and Iran. But Iran is the odd one out of the three, with a functioning state, an international strategy based on national interest, and a relative degree of internal pluralism. And yet the opportunity for the United States and the European Union to reach an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program seems to be slipping away. Iran, unlike North Korea, is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which means its atomic facilities are monitored by UN inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
