China's Angst Over Iran

The Middle East Institute is pleased to host Dr. Thomas O'Donnell, lecturer in Graduate International Affairs at the New School in New York, for a discussion on China's perception of the Iranian nuclear issue. Drawing on his expertise in the global energy system, Dr. O'Donnell will examine why Beijing, which was initially and very vocally opposed to UN sanctions, ended up voting in favor of them. He will outline the energy-security nexus underlying China's interests in Iran and America's opposition to Iran's increased regional power-projection capability, nuclear or otherwise. Paradoxically, China's approach to energy security via-a-vis Iran and its other major energy suppliers both clashes and coincides with US interests in maintaining a secure global market-centered oil system. Dr. O'Donnell will close by reflecting on how these energy realities and their differential constraints on U.S., Chinese and Iranian interests might open the door for a multi-lateral solution to the Iranian nuclear question.