Iran in 2018: Between Regional Hegemony and Domestic Unrest

Open to the Public

In an increasingly volatile Middle East, Iran in 2018 will continue to be at the center of regional developments--and at the top of headlines. The defeat of ISIS in Iraq and the victory of Assad in Syria is a strategic win for Iran and its allies and as post-war reconstruction gets underway in these countries, Iran will play a crucial role in governance, economic, and security issues. On the other hand, domestically Iran was embroiled with recent protests over the economy. What does 2018 hold for Iran? Will Iran continue its foreign policies or roll back its regional role due to domestic and international pressures? In light of the Trump administration’s increasingly confrontational rhetoric on Iran, Iranian responses and its domestic and foreign politics are again in the international spotlight and require careful consideration. Join Payam Mohseni, the Iran Project Director at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in this timely discussion. Co-sponsored by Harvard's WCFIA/CMES Middle East Seminar.

Date: Time: 04:00pm Location: Knafel Building, Bowie-Vernon, Room K262

The Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran. The sign above the entrance reads: "Neither East nor West"

Dr. Payam Mohseni is the Director of the Iran Project at the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is also a Lecturer in the Department of Government at Harvard University where he teaches Iranian and Middle East politics and is a multiple recipient of the Harvard Excellence in Teaching award. Dr. Mohseni serves as a scholar and member of Harvard’s Iran Working Group, which he co-chairs with Professor Graham Allison, and manages the Belfer Center’s Special Initiative Iran Matters, a premier outlet for policy analysis on all aspects of contemporary Iranian affairs. Dr. Mohseni is also a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York.

Dr. Mohseni’s research focuses on Iranian foreign and domestic policymaking, ideology and sectarian conflict in the Middle East, and the politics of authoritarianism and hybrid regimes. Dr. Mohseni is fluent in Persian and travels frequently to Iran. His analysis has been featured in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs,Washington Post, The National Interest, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Bloomberg, U.S. News and World Report, and MSNBC, among others, including prominent international and Iranian media outlets.

Previously, Dr. Mohseni co-chaired Harvard’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies Study Group on the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe from 2014 to 2016. Prior to that, he was a postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Belfer Center's International Security Program, a Junior Research Fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, and a member of the Iran Study Group at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington, D.C. He holds a Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University, an M.A. in Conflict, Security, and Development from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, and a B.A. in Development Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.