The New War in the Middle East: International, Regional, and Domestic

The new war in the Middle East, triggered on 28 February by the Israeli-American attack on Iran, has once again plunged the region, as well as the international system more broadly, into a period of significant uncertainty. To provide a rigorous and multifaceted analysis of this major development, while maintaining the necessary analytical distance, CERI is organizing an event structured around two complementary conferences.

The first, to be held on 30 March, will examine the international dimensions of the conflict and its global implications. The second, on 31 March, will focus on the regional dimensions of the conflict as well as its repercussions for Iranian domestic politics. Taken together, these two sessions trace a progression from the global level to regional configurations and domestic political consequences, bringing together scholars with diverse areas of expertise and perspectives.

Moderator :
Victor Mallet is a senior journalist at the Financial Times. A career foreign correspondent, he has reported for over three decades from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, including as the Financial Times's Middle East correspondent, where he covered the 1990–91 Gulf War and was notably present in Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion in August 1990. He is also the author of several books, most recently Far-Right France: Le Pen, Bardella and the Future of Europe (Hurst, 2026).

Speakers :
Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Sciences Po - CERI / CNRS : "How about: Perspectives from Africa on the new Middle East war? "
Nicole Grajewski , Sciences Po - CERI / CNRS: "US-Israel strategic alignments and Russian perspectives"
Christophe Jaffrelot, Sciences Po - CERI / CNRS : "Can India be equidistant from Israel, Iran, Russia, and the US? "
Stéphanie Balme, Sciences Po - CERI / CNRS : "China’s Strategic Positions"
Benoît Pélopidas, Sciences Po - CERI / CNRS : "Counterproliferation by force, past and future"

Présidence :
Aghiad Ghanem, Sciences Po, PSIA

Bernard Hourcade, Le Centre de Recherche sur le Monde iranien (CeRMI) - CNRS : "L'Iran après la guerre : chaos, espoirs de changement ou nouveau despotisme?"
Samy Cohen, Sciences Po - CERI/CNRS : "Israël, une guerre pourquoi faire?"
Laurence Louër, Sciences Po - CERI/CNRS : "Les monarchies du Golfe au piège de l’unilatéralisme israélo-américain"
Laurence Bonnefoy, Sciences Po - CERI/CNRS: "Yémen : d'un conflit l'autre ?"
Eberhard Kienle, Sciences Po - CERI/CNRS : "Au-delà du Hizb Allah: le Liban et la Syrie dans la guerre"

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