Session 1: Keynote Speech

"Iran’s Global Strategy"
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (SOAS)

Chair: Bryan Endres (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

The paper will present a comprehensive analysis of the strategic preferences of the Iranian state. What is it that Iran wants in international affairs? How does the state conceive of its role in world politics? What are its foreign policy objectives? What are the historical memories feeding into Iranian perceptions of the world? Why is Iran so suspicious of western policies? These are some of the questions that will be discussed in this paper with a particular emphasis on the nuclear issue and recent events in Iran. Departing from this analysis the paper will also carve out areas of mutual interest between Iran and the United States and areas of potential conflict. In doing so, it will ask the question if- and how both countries can transform their relationship into a ‘cold peace’.