Accounting for both domestic factional politics and the international balance of power, Ali Fathollah-Nejad’s book examines the drivers behind Iranian foreign policy since 9/11. He also examines Iran’s relations with non-Western great powers and offers a critique of the “Rouhani doctrine” and its economic and foreign-policy visions. What can we detect about Iranian geopolitical imaginations and what do we know about the competing visions of various foreign policy schools of thought in Iran? Why was Rouhani's so-called neoliberal-inspired developmental model doomed to fail? Will the “Look to the East” political faction deepen Tehran’s pursuit of its interests in regards to ties to China in the post-Rouhani period? What does this all mean for American policy calculations vis-vis-Iran in the coming years? MEI is delighted to host author Ali Fathollah-Nejad to discuss these questions in detail, with Professor Anoush Ehteshami joining him on the panel as a discussant.
Speakers:
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Political scientist, analyst, author; affiliated scholar with Freie Universität, Berlin’s Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics; author of the weekly newsletter Iran 1400 Brief: Beyond the Headlines
Anoush Ehteshami
Director, Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Durham University
Alex Vatanka, moderator
Director, Iran Program, MEI
Photo credit: courtesy of the author