Trita Parsi
Founder and current president of the National Iranian American Council
ABSTRACT
Trita Parsi has written an illuminating book, recounting in detail the complex events leading to the Iran Nuclear Deal. He emphasizes that the issues at stake extended far, far beyond the question of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
The decision of President Trump to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, leaves the agreement, reached by seven countries, in tatters. The United States plans to reimpose the stringent sanctions it imposed on Iran before the deal and is considering new penalties.
Mr. Parsi will discuss the behind-the-scenes story of how and why the historic nuclear deal with Iran was struck and Iran’s strategy in the Middle East. He will include his view of the President’s decision to withdraw, its long ranging implications and a convincing argument that normalization with Iran, although not inevitable, is possible.
BIOGRAPHY
Trita Parsi is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign politics, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. Parsi’s articles on Middle East affairs have been published in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Jane’s Intelligence Review, the Nation, The American Conservative, the Jerusalem Post, The Forward, and others. He is a frequent guest on CNN, PBS Newshour, NPR, the BBC, and Al Jazeera.
Parsi’s latest book - Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy (Yale University Press, 2017) - reveals the behind the scenes story to the historic nuclear deal with Iran. (Read the review on ForeignAffairs.com.)
Parsi was born in Iran but moved with his family at the age of 4 to Sweden in order to escape political repression in Iran. His father was an outspoken academic and non-Muslim who was jailed by the Shah and then by the Ayatollah. He moved to the United States as an adult and studied foreign policy at Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies where he received his Ph.D. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from Uppsala University and a Master’s Degree in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics.
He has served as an adjunct professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute and as a Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. He is fluent in Persian/Farsi, English, and Swedish.
Parsi is the founder and president of the National Iranian American Council, a non-partisan, non-profit organization through which Iranian-Americans can participate in American civic life. NIAC is a vocal proponent of dialogue and engagement between the US and Iran, which Parsi consistently has argued would enhance our national security by helping to stabilize the Middle East and bolster the moderates in Iran.
