War in Iran (Part 2/3): What Is Going On Now?

The War in Iran is happening, whether we like it or not. We know there is complexity in this issue. It is not black or white, so the best way to lean into the grey is to truly learn about the the past, present, and future of the situation.

In the first event, Professor Daniel Sargent (UC Berkeley) will help us understand the history of U.S.-Iran relations that got us to this point. We'll focus on the history of the American world order and how it has interacted with Iran up through the present. How did the US and Iran end up as adversaries? How has American foreign policy toward the Middle East shifted over time?

In this second event, Professor Stephen Zunes (USF) will help us connect that history to the present. What is going on now? As one of the few American academics that has been allowed into Iran since 2017, Prof. Zunes will speak to what Middle East policy has meant on the ground for Iranians. What is the interplay between U.S. policy and the freedom struggle? We will review the history of civil resistance in Iran, connect to how the U.S. has interfered with and affected those Iranian efforts, and ultimately understand what the Iranian people are feeling right now. Where is there hope?

Finally, in our last event, Professor Scott Sagan (Stanford) will show us what is next. As a military and foreign affairs expert, Prof. Sagan will guide us through the decisions being made by the U.S. and Iran in the present day and help us understand what we can expect next in this crazy war. We will discuss the nuclear program, military actions, and the desired outcomes of the U.S. and Iran.

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Stephen Zunes has been at the University of San Francisco since 1995, teaching courses on the politics of the Middle East and other regions, nonviolence, conflict resolution, U.S. foreign policy, globalization, and the politics of war and peace. In 2004, he founded USF's Middle Eastern Studies Program and currently serves as Program Director. In 2025, he was named as USF's inaugural Daniel Greenberg Fellow in Interfaith Nonviolence.

A prominent specialist on U.S. Middle East policy, Professor Zunes has presented hundreds of public lectures and conference papers in both the United States and over a dozen foreign countries. He has traveled frequently to the Middle East and other conflict regions, meeting with prominent government officials, scholars, and dissidents. He has served as a political analyst for local, national, and international radio and television and as a columnist for several print and online publications, and has published hundreds of articles in academic journals, anthologies, magazines, websites, and elsewhere on such topics as U.S. foreign policy, Middle Eastern politics, human rights, arms control, social movements, international law, and strategic nonviolent action. He has served as a writer and senior analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, an associate editor for Peace Review, and a contributing editor of Tikkun.

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