A brown bag talk and discussion with David Menashiri

The Islamic regime in Iran since the Revolution has seen western influence as a major threat, viewing the U.S. as the "Great Satan" and calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. Although some lessening of hostility could be discerned under Khatami, moderate voices were frustrated with the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June, 2005.

What does the regime gain from Ahmedinejad’s radical statements? What is behind the Iran-U.S. talks over Iraq? What is Iran’s nuclear policy? Addressing these and other questions, David Menashiri will explore the ideologies and politics behind Iran’s attitudes toward the U.S. and Israel.

David Menashri is Director of the Center of Iranian Studies and the Parviz and Pouran Nazarian Chair for Modern Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University. He has been a Fulbright scholar at Princeton and Cornell, and visiting scholar at the Universities of Chicago, Melbourne, Munich, and Waseda (Tokyo). In the late 1970s he spent two years conducting research in Iranian universities on the eve of the Islamic Revolution.