US-Iran Strategic Competition

The Iran Challenge

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been a critical challenge for American policymakers, turning from friend to foe overnight. In the ensuing four decades, nearly every American president has had an Iran-related crisis help define his presidency. Over the course of the seminar, fellows will gain a clear understanding of the history of America’s relationship with Iran and take an in-depth look at the ideological nature of the Iranian regime. They will delve into the challenges the regime presents to the United States, from its nuclear program to its regional ambitions to its oil diplomacy.

Taught by leading scholars in the field, SSS will consist of 15 evening sessions that meet from September-May and will afford participating fellows an opportunity to gain a breadth of knowledge on critical subjects, forge relationships with senior scholars and practitioners, sharpen analytical frameworks through written and oral arguments, and build a cohort with their peers. Through the lens of strategic competition with Iran, fellows will examine:

What are our goals and how do we achieve them?
What does the strategic competition look like? What are we competing over?
What do we need to understand about our adversary in order to achieve our goals?