Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

Past Event
Special Series

Iran's Saudi Policy after the Arab Spring: A Strategic Shift?

RSVP Required Open to the Public

From the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, Iran's rising influence is shaping important dynamics on the ground. In Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, Iran-allied partners and armed groups have pushed back their rivals including ISIS and militant salafis. A large determining factor in these conflict zones is Iran's rivalry with Saudi Arabia as these two regional powers face off across multiple arenas in the Middle East. What is driving Iran's strategic calculus and decision making in the region? Is the Middle East bound for further conflict given current trajectories? Despite the importance of Iranian decision making in the Middle East, the country's foreign policy remains understudied and misunderstood. Join this lecture exploring Iranian foreign policy by Hassan Ahmadian (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, the Iran Project and Assistant Professor at the University of Tehran) -- the first in a three part series on Iran's Middle East policy.  RSVP required: please RSVP here. 

Date: Time: - Location: Room 401
Yemenis supporters of the Ansarallah movement (the Houthis) listen to a speech by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi on a screen during moulid al-nabi celebrations, the birth of Islam's Prophet Muhammad in Sanaa, Yemen (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed

Iran's Saudi Arabia Policy

From the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, Iran's rising influence is shaping important dynamics on the ground. In Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, Iran-allied partners and armed groups have pushed back their rivals including ISIS and militant salafis. A large determining factor in these conflict zones is Iran's rivalry with Saudi Arabia as these two regional powers face off across multiple arenas in the Middle East. What is driving Iran's strategic calculus and decision making in the region? Is the Middle East bound for further conflict given current trajectories? Despite the importance of Iranian decision making in the Middle East, the country's foreign policy remains understudied and misunderstood.

As part of the Iran Project's three-part special seminar series on Iranian policy in the Middle East with Hassan Ahmadian (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, the Iran Project and Assistant Professor at the University of Tehran), please join us for this first lecture on "Iran's Saudi Arabia Policy." Space is provided on a first-come first-serve basis with preference for Harvard affiliates; please RSVP here (required). Moderated by Payam Mohseni, Director of the Iran Project.

Follow up discussions on Iran's Syria policy (Nov. 7), and Iran's Iraq policy (Dec. 7) will constitute the remaining lectures of this series exploring Iranian policy in the Middle East.