If Iran saw its nuclear program as essential to defending the country’s very existence – the way Israel and Pakistan view their nuclear programs – then economic considerations would make little difference to Iran’s calculations. But defense is not the principal factor behind the Iranian nuclear program. Rather, Iran’s principal motives for its nuclear program are the pursuit of prestige and influence. Iranian leaders consistently present the nuclear program as an accomplishment of Iranian science and as evidence that Iran is an advanced modern industrial power. They also argue that Western opposition to Iran’s nuclear ambitions are an effort to keep Iran down, to prevent the country from assuming its rightful place as a leader in the region and the broader Muslim world. They play to Iranians’ national pride, to their sense that Iran is naturally a great power – not to any sense that Iran is so threatened that it must take desperate steps to defend itself.