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On the origins and future of a longstanding conflict, with Vali Nasr, professor of international affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
Profs and Pints DC presents: “Understanding U.S.-Iran Relations,” on the origins and future of a longstanding conflict, with Vali Nasr, professor of international affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, co-director of the SAIS Rethinking Iran Initiative, and author of several books on Iran and the Middle East.
Iran has represented a foreign-policy challenge for the United States for nearly 50 years, with relations between the U.S. and that nation growing more tense and sporadically violent during the first year of President Trump’s second term.
Gain an understanding of what has driven the conflict, as well as what the future holds for Iran and its rivalry with the United States, with Professor Vali Nar, a leading expert who has advised senior American policymakers and world leaders on the region and whose many books on it include Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty, Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the Making of State Power, and the co-authored How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare.
He’ll start by taking us back to Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, which transformed Iran into a theocracy ruled by ayatollahs who cast the United States as the Great Satan, an enemy to be defeated at all costs.
Our nation’s leaders often have blamed religious ideology for Iran’s hostility toward the United States and Iran’s willingness to devote so much energy to confronting a nation halfway around the world. Dr. Nasr will show, however, that such an explanation is inadequate, and he’ll explain how Iran’s anti-Americanism also is rooted in its history, insecurities, anxieties, and ambitions.
Professor Nasr will discuss how this anti-Americanism and our desire to contain Iran have shaped U.S.-Iran relations over four decades. You’ll learn how it has led to confrontations in Lebanon and Iraq, as well as to two decades of back and forth over Iran’s nuclear program. It also has skewed Iran’s own domestic policies, deeply impacted the histories of other nations in the region, and brought about war.
We’ll consider what more to expect from this rivalry and what Iran’s future holds. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: Photo by Mohammadhossein Movahedinejad (Tasmin News Agency / Creative Commons).
