Israel, Iran and the United States: All Options Are Bad!

Fast Thinking
Oct 2, 2024

What is Iran thinking now?

By
Atlantic Council

Tehran launched nearly two hundred missiles at Israel on Tuesday. Atlantic Council experts consider the ways that the barrage—which was largely ineffectual—offers a window into Iranian thinking.

Conflict
Iran

Israel, Iran and the United States: All Options Are Bad!

IranSource
Oct 2, 2024

It’s time Iran’s artists be considered as human rights defenders

By
Sanjay Sethi and Johanna Bankston

International recognition of the acute risk creatives face in Iran is necessary to ensure their vital role in advocating for human rights continues.

Civil Society
Iran

Israel, Iran and the United States: All Options Are Bad!

New Atlanticist
Sep 28, 2024

Experts react: Hassan Nasrallah is dead. What’s next for Hezbollah, Israel, and Iran?

By
Atlantic Council experts

On Saturday, Hezbollah confirmed that its leader had been killed in an Israeli air strike. Atlantic Council experts share their insights on what might come next for the already war-torn region.

Iran
Israel

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Report

Oct 8, 2024

A bipartisan Iran strategy for the next US administration—and the next two decades

As tensions spike in the Middle East, how should the next US president approach Iran and its network of proxies including Hezbollah and Hamas? With a strategy that can be maintained for decades, by administrations of either party. A bipartisan, expert working group lays out the details.

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Middle East

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Working with allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.

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IranSource

Jan 6, 2025

Blinded Iranian activist Elaheh Tavakolian: ‘We lost our eyes on this path. Let us not lose sight of our goal’

By
Holly Dagres

Holly Dagres sits down with blinded Iranian activist Elahe Tavakolian to share her story and discuss the situation in Iran and what the West needs to do.

Civil Society
Freedom and Prosperity


IranSource

Nov 20, 2024

2025 will be a decisive year for Iran’s nuclear program

By
Danny Citrinowicz  

Diplomatic deadlines and regional factors will force Iran to decide soon whether to strike a deal or seek a nuclear weapon. Either choice will have major ripple effects.

Arms Control
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Nov 20, 2024

How to wrestle with an ayatollah 

By
Khosro Sayeh Isfahani

If one looks closely, the ancient Persian sport of wrestling might have answers to understanding how to contain Iran

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Content

New Atlanticist

Feb 9, 2012

Israel, Iran and the United States: All Options Are Bad!

By Don Snow

The growing confrontation between Israel and Iran over the Iranian nuclear weapons program is spinning perilously out of hand, and it has within it the seeds of the most potentially dangerous threat to international peace since the Cold War ended over 20 years ago. What we are witnessing is a verbal run-up to a military […]

Iran Israel

New Atlanticist

Jan 27, 2012

Deterring Iran: The Return to American Statecraft

By Julian Lindley-French

On the tomb of Tamburlaine, King of Persia, there is a dread inscription, “When I rise, the world will tremble”. Faced with Tehran’s seeming determination to develop nuclear weapons the march towards confrontation this week quickened. After threats from Iran to close the oil-vital Straits of Hormuz an American aircraft carrier was joined in the […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jan 23, 2012

What to do about Iran

By R. Nicholas Burns

What to do about an increasingly truculent and threatening Iran is now the most important foreign policy challenge of 2012.

Iran

New Atlanticist

Jan 20, 2012

Empathy with the Ayatollah

By Jeffrey Lightfoot

“Empathize with your enemy.” It is the first of eleven lessons offered by the former US Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara in the award-winning 2002 documentary “Fog of War.”

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jan 19, 2012

On Iran, Emulate TR

By R. James Woolsey and Robert MacFarlane

In the first week of 2012, President Obama finally approved tough sanctions on Iran’s central bank, aiming to cripple Iran’s oil trade and thwart its advanced efforts to possess a nuclear weapon. Iran’s armed-forces commander, Gen. Ataollah Salehi, threatened military action against the USS John C. Stennis, an aircraft carrier operating in international waters: “We […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Jan 17, 2012

Analyzing the Great Game Between the West and Iran

By Sarwar Kashmeri

Hardly a day goes by without Iran featuring in media headlines. In his latest New Atlanticist Podcast, Atlantic Council senior fellow Sarwar Kashmeri spoke with Boston University Professor of International Relations and History Andrew Bacecvich on the great game between the West and Iran.Download the PDF

Iran

New Atlanticist

Jan 3, 2012

Winning the Iran Debate

By James Joyner

National War College professor Bernard Finel makes an excellent point about why the hawks have the upper hand in the “war with Iran” debate. While he’s specifically taking to task recent columns by Stephen Walt, the argument applies equally to those, like myself, who have been arguing the folly of military action against Iran’s nukes: [T]he […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Dec 16, 2011

Iran Hedges Its Bets on Syria

By Barbara Slavin

Iran is courting the opposition to Syrian President Bashar al- Assad, seeking to maintain a crucial alliance in the event that Assad falls. So far, Iranian officials have met at least twice with members of the National Coordinating Committee (NCC). The Damascus-based group opposes foreign intervention in Syria and advocates reform to resolve the nine-month-old […]

Iran Syria
Iran

Event Recap

Dec 14, 2011

Iran’s Hand in the Levant

By Adrienne Chuck

The Atlantic Council’s Iran Task Force and Rafik Hariri Center, held a joint public briefing on Iran’s influence in the Levant on December 14.

Iran Syria

New Atlanticist

Dec 13, 2011

Saudi Arabia Nuclear Hedging

By Yoel Guzansky

Saudi Arabia’s announcement last week that it plans to build 16 nuclear reactors with a budget of more than $100 billion raises doubts about its nuclear ambitions.

Iran Nuclear Nonproliferation
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Experts

Fellow

Mark N. Katz

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Geopolitics & Energy Security Iran

Staff

Matthew Kroenig

Vice President and Senior Director, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

China Defense Policy

Fellow

Keir Lieber

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

China Defense Policy

Fellow

Shuja Nawaz

Distinguished Fellow

South Asia Center

Security & Defense Politics & Diplomacy

Fellow

Bahar Ghandehari

Junior Policy Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Afghanistan English

Fellow

Mark Klamberg

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

English European Union
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