The U.S.-Iran War: Is it Inevitable?

Description

The Trump administration is at the precipice of war with Iran. With a collapsed economy, severely diminished regional influence, and a deep legitimacy crisis worsened by the January Massacre of thousands in response to nationwide protests, the Islamic Republic faces perhaps the deepest existential challenge of its history. Will it survive? Join us for a conversation with two leading scholars of Iran from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, Vali Nasr and Narges Bajoghli.

Speaker Bios

Vali Nasr is the Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins-SAIS. Between 2012 and 2019 he served as the Dean of the School, and between 2009 and 2011 as Senior Advisor to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. Nasr is the author of several books including, Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History; How Sanctions Work, Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare; The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat; The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam will Shape the Future; and Democracy in Iran. His commentary has appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He is a member of Global Board of Trustees of Asia Society, the recipient of Carnegie Scholar Award, and the Frank Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundation research fellowships. He was selected as Henry Alfred Kissinger Distinguished Scholar at Library of Congress for 2024-25.

Narges Bajoghli is a scholar, award-winning author, and public intellectual exploring the intersections of media, power, and resistance in global politics. She is an anthropologist and Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she serves as the Faculty Lead of Middle East Studies and is the co-director of the Rethinking Iran Initiative. Her first book, Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic (Stanford University Press), received widespread acclaim and multiple awards for its groundbreaking ethnographic approach, including the Margaret Mead Book Award. Her second book, How Sanctions Work in Iran, offers an in-depth analysis of the impact of sanctions on Iranian society. Narges’s forthcoming book examines the legacy of chemical warfare in the Middle East and its broader implications for global military experimentation and violence. Narges’s public writing have been featured in prominent outlets, including Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair.

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