President of Iran addresses the U.N. General Assembly. Photo: United Nations; cropped. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Co-sponsored by the UCLA International Institute Academic Programs, Burkle Center for International Relations, Center for Middle East Development, and Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
About the Talk
Iran is a big part of the dramatic change that is taking place in the Middle East. In 2009, its domestic unrest presaged the Arab Spring, while at the same time the Islamic State was incubating in neighboring Shi’i Iraq with strong ties to Iran; and the evolving Shi’i-Sunni rift and Iran’s competition with Arab States of the Persian Gulf littoral (mainly Saudi Arabia) is becoming increasingly linked to Iran’s involvement in the wider Middle East. Underlying these regional developments, is Iran’s relationship to the West and Israel, and Iran’s controversial nuclear program. Situating these developments in historical and regional context, this lecture will explore the relationship between Iran’s foreign affairs and its domestic politics, including its socio-economic challenges and growing popular dissatisfaction, domestic power struggles, competing political factions, and the tension between revolutionary ideology and national interest.
About the Speaker
David Menashri is Professor Emeritus, Tel Aviv University, and Senior Research Fellow at the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies and the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University (TAU). In Winter and Spring 2016, he is the Israel Institute Visiting Professor at the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Menashri founded and was the first Director the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies, the first of its kind in Israel (2005-2010), and the first Incumbent of the Parviz and Pouran Nazarian Chair for Modern Iranian Studies (1997-2011). He served as chair of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History (1996-2000) and Dean for Special Programs (2001-2010) at Tel Aviv University. Following his retirement from TAU, he has served as President of the College of Law and Business in Ramat Gan, Israel. An internationally-recognized Iran scholar, he has been a visiting Fulbright scholar at Princeton (1984-85) and Cornell University (1985-86), and, among others, a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, Oxford, Melbourne and Monash Universities (Australia), the Universities of Munich and Mainz (Germany) and Waseda (Tokyo). In the late 1970s, Menashri spent two years conducting research and field studies in Iranian universities on the eve of the Islamic Revolution with grant from Ford Foundation. Professor Menashri has authored and edited more than ten books and published numerous articles on Iran and the Middle East. His publications include: Post-Revolutionary Politics in Iran: Religion, Society and Power; Revolution at a Crossroads: Iran's Domestic Challenges and Regional Ambitions; Iran: Between Islam and the West (Hebrew); Education and the Making of Modern Iran; Iran: A Decade of War and Revolution; and Iran in Revolution (Hebrew). He is also the editor of: Iran: Anatomy of a Revolution (together with Liora Hendelman-Baavur, 2009, Hebrew); Religion and State in the Middle East (Hebrew); Central Asia Meets the Middle East; and The Iranian Revolution and the Muslim World.
Sponsor(s): Burkle Center for International Relations, Academic Programs, Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, Center for Middle East Development