Iran Program Research & Reports

Public Art in Tehran: Painting One Wall at a Time

By Mehran Haghirian

On Thursday, October 20, 2016, the South Asia Center’s Future of Iran Initiative hosted a panel discussion moderated by the Future of Iran Initiative’s Acting Director Barbara Slavin featuring Mehdi Ghadyanloo, Iranian artist and muralist, and David Furchgott, Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of International Arts and Artists, to discuss Iran’s public art scene. […]

A New Strategy for US-Iran Relations in Transition

By Tyler M. Nocita

On Wednesday, October 19, the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security’s Middle East Peace and Security Initiative released Atlantic Council distinguished fellow Ellen Laipson’s A New Strategy for US-Iran Relations in Transition, the sixth installment in the Atlantic Council Strategy Paper series. The report advocates for a balanced approach towards American relations with Iran that […]

Ties That Bind: US-Iran Engagement and the Peace Corps Legacy

By South Asia Center

On Monday, September 26, 2016, the South Asia Center’s Future of Iran Initiative hosted a panel discussion moderated by the Future of Iran Initiative’s Acting Director Barbara Slavin featuring John Limbert, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, US Naval Academy, Farzaneh Milani, Professor and Chair, Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures, University […]

Ben Rhodes: Tearing Up Iran Nuke Deal Will Precipitate a Crisis in the Middle East

By Ashish Kumar Sen

The next US president would precipitate a crisis in the Middle East and alienate America’s allies if he or she decides to tear up the nuclear deal with Iran, a senior White House official said at the Atlantic Council on June 16. “The way in which the Iran deal was structured creates enormous disincentives for […]

Iran debates its regional role

By Nasser Hadian

Concerns in the United States and its traditional Middle Eastern allies about Iran’s expanding regional role in the aftermath of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached between Iran and the P5+1 on July 14, 2015, fail to take into consideration a significant debate within the Iranian policy elite. In “Iran Debates Its Regional […]

Mitigating the security risks posed by a near-nuclear Iran

By Matthew Kroenig

Deal or no deal, Iran will still pose a destabilizing nuclear security threat, writes Senior Fellow Matthew Kroenig As worldwide attention focuses on the international negotiators rushing to finish a nuclear deal with Iran before a self-imposed November 24 deadline, we are in danger of overlooking the fact that Iran’s extant nuclear capability already presents […]

The Enemy of My Enemy: An Uneasy Coalition and the Threat of ISIS

By The Atlantic Council

The alarming expansion of the jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has prompted regional and international powerbrokers with vested security and economic interests in the broader Middle East to reassess their regional strategies. The United States and key Gulf states on one side, and Iran and Syria on the other, share […]

Roundtable on Regional Perspectives on Nuclear Diplomacy with Iran

In November 2013, Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) signed an interim agreement on the Iranian nuclear program. While a significant breakthrough, the deal has not been universally considered a guarantee against Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons. Focusing on regional views of nuclear diplomacy with Iran, the […]