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Event Detail
Morningside Heights
International Affairs Building, Altschul Auditorium
The Middle East Institute (MEI) and SIPA present the third event in the Spring 2008 series - Three decades of the Islamic Republic of Iran: "US-Iranian Relations since 1953 and Prospects for the Post Bush Era.”
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The conference explores the history of US-Iranian relations during three distinct historical eras:
From the 1953 anti-Mossadegh coup to the Hostage Crisis
From the Hostage Crisis to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center
From 9/11 to the last year of the Bush administration
The final session of the conference will consist of a round table discussion by the invited speakers on the prospects for US-Iranian relations after President Bush leaves office.
Session I (10:00 to 11:15): From the 1953 anti-Mossadegh coup to the Hostage Crisis
This part of the conference will cover the rise and fall of Mohammad Mossadegh and the subsequent role the United States played in Iranian affairs throughout the remainder of the Pahlavi regime. Speakers will discuss the evolution of cultural and political movements in Iran during this time, culminating with the 1979 revolution.
Ervand Abrahamian was born in Iran and raised in England. His books include Iran Between Two Revolutions (1982); Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic (1993), and Inventing the Axis of Evil: The Truth about North Korea, Iran, and Syria (2006). He teaches at the CUNY Graduate Center, and has taught at Princeton, New York University, and Oxford University.
Ali M. Ansari is Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St. Andrews and Associate Fellow of Chatham House. His books include Confronting Iran: The Failure of American Foreign Policy and the Next Great Crisis in the Middle East (2006); Iran, Islam, and Democracy—The Politics of Managing Change (2001); and Modern Iran Since 1921: The Pahlavis and After (2003) .
11:15-11:30 Coffee Break
Session II (11:30 to 12:45): From the Hostage Crisis to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center
This session will cover the background and aftermath of the Hostage Crisis, the Iran-Iraq war, and efforts during the Clinton administration to reassess American relations with Iran.
Speakers:
Ebrahim Yazdi was born in 1931. He joined the underground National Resistance Movement of Iran after the overthrow of Mossadegh, participated in the Iranian Revolution, and served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the interim government of Mehdi Bazargan. After the attack on the US embassy in November 1979, he and the entire cabinet of the Interim Government resigned in protest. Subsequently he was elected as a representative from Tehran in the first post-revolutionary parliament, serving from 1980 to 1984. In subsequent elections he and other members of the Freedom Movement were barred from running by the Guardian Council.
John Limbert earned a Ph.D. from Harvard and then jointed the Foreign
Service. He worked at the American embassy in Tehran after the 1979
Revolution and was among the diplomats taken hostage by attackers who
held the embassy staff for fourteen months. His last postings before
retiring from the Foreign Service were as Dean of the Foreign Service
Institute’s School of Language Studies and the Chargé d’Affaires of the
American Embassy in Khartoum. He is currently Professor of
International Affairs at the U.S. Naval Academy. His book publications
include Iran: At War with History (1987) and Shiraz in the Age of
Hafez: The Glory of a Medieval Persian City (2004).
Lunch Break: 12:45 to 2:00
Session III (2:00 to 3:15): From 9/11 to the last year of the Bush administration
Following the attacks of September 11, the Iranian people took to the streets to mourn in solidarity with the people of the United States. For its part, the Iranian government aided the United States as it sought to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban. Soon Iran was rewarded with being listed as a member of the now famous “Axis of Evil.” This evolution in American-Iranian relations will be the focus of this session.
Speakers:
Gary Sick is a Senior Research Scholar and adjunct professor of
international affairs at the School of International and Public Affairs
at Columbia University. He served on the National Security Council
staff under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan and was the principal
White House aide for IranAll Fall Down: America’s Tragic Encounter with
Iran (1985) and October SurprisePersian Gulf. during the Iranian
Revolution and the hostage crisis. His two books on U.S.-Iranian
relations, (1992) draw on these experiences. Professor Sick is a
captain (ret.) in the U.S. Navy and serves as executive director of
Gulf/2000, an international research project on political, economic and
security developments in the Gulf region.
Wayne White is currently an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia. He also served as principal Iraq analyst and head of INR/NESA’s Iraq team from 2003 to 2005.
Coffee Break: 3:15-3:30
Session IV( 3:15 to 4:45 ): Concluding Round Table
Moderator: Richard W. Bulliet
What are the prospects for US-Iranian relations in the post-Bush, and possibly post-Ahmadinejad, era? All speakers will be invited to participate on this round table.
