The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between Iran and the P5+1

On July 14th, 2015, a long-term accord on Iran’s nuclear programs was signed. This accord is between Iran and the P5+1 (Russia, US, France, Germany, China, and the UK),  and it is called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It said that Iran must limit their nuclear activities, research, and development, as well as allow for international inspections. Before this deal was signed, Iran had had enough supplies to make several nuclear bombs in a relatively short amount of time. This greatly worried the rest of the world, even though Iran claimed that their nuclear activities were peaceful. 
Several years before the JCPOA was finalized, negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran began. Since at first, Iran did not agree to all of the demands of the P5 +1, economic sanctions were put on them, and many of their assets overseas were frozen. This cost Iran hundreds of billions of dollars over the years, and so eventually they agreed to the JCPOA. 
This is typically considered to be a case in which smart power was used. First negotiations were made to try to persuade Iran to do what the P5+1 wanted, and when that failed, they used economic sanctions to coerce Iran into the deal. I think an argument can be made, however, that this is actually an example of mostly hard power. The Pearson Baccalaureate Global Politics Textbook considers negotiations and diplomacy to be a form of smart power. Economic sanctions are typically considered to be hard power. Since smart power is defined as a mix between soft and hard power, and this case was a mix between smart and hard power, with hard power being the deciding factor, I think it could be considered an example of hard power overall. 
Sources:
“Iran nuclear deal: Key details.” BBC News, 11 June 2019.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33521655.
“The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) at a Glance.” Arms Control Association, May 2018. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/JCPOA-at-a-glance. 

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