CFR Invitation for 2/8 Academic Conference Call: "The United States and Iran: On the Brink"

Wednesday, February 8 in Wyatt 326
10-11 a.m.

Students should email Professor Seth Weinberger at sweinberger@pugetsound.edu to RSVP


From: Council on Foreign Relations [mailto:educators@cfr.org]
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 1:22 PM
To: Seth Weinberger
Subject: CFR Invitation for 2/8 Academic Conference Call: "The United States and Iran: On the Brink"

Dear Seth:

On behalf of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), I invite you and your students to participate in the first session of the Winter/Spring 2012 CFR Academic Conference Call series on Wednesday, February 8, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. (ET). Please note the special timing of this call. Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council, will discuss the increasing tension between the United States and Iran, and the possibility of war.

Dr. Parsi is the author of "A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran" and "Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States," which was awarded CFR's 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award silver medallion. He has worked for the Swedish Permanent Mission to the UN, where he served in the Security Council, handling the affairs of Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan, and Western Sahara, and in the General Assembly's Third Committee, addressing human rights in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Iraq. Dr. Parsi has held the positions of adjunct professor of international relations at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute, and policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC.

The full schedule for the Winter/Spring 2012 Academic Conference Call series follows below. In order to encourage an interactive dialogue, we ask that professors convene students in a group to participate. Typically, professors have found it convenient to gather in a classroom or host students in their office around a speaker phone.

As background for the discussion, you may wish to have your students review the following materials:

1) Matthew Kroenig, "Time to Attack Iran," Foreign Affairs, January/February 2012.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136917/matthew-kroenig/time-to-attack-iran?gp=134050:4525f5814f3bc6b7
2) Colin H. Kahl, "Not Time to Attack Iran," Foreign Affairs, January/February 2012.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137031/colin-h-kahl/not-time-to-attack-iran?gp=134301:835396f14f3bc6b7
3) Trita Parsi, "How Obama Became Vulnerable on Iran," Salon, January 31, 2012.
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/31/how_obama_became_vulnerable_on_iran/singleton/
4) Leslie H. Gelb, "Leslie H. Gelb on How President Obama Should Handle Iran," Daily Beast, January 30, 2012.
http://www.cfr.org/iran/leslie-h-gelb-president-obama-should-handle-iran/p27213/?cid=ACCinvite-Parsi_Gelb-2812
5) Trita Parsi, "How the U.S. and Iran Keep Failing to Find a Peace They Both Want," Excerpt from "A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran," Atlantic, January 15, 2012.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/the-story-of-how-and-why-us-iran-diplomacy-keeps-failing/251853/?single_page=true
6) Trita Parsi, "Reckless Talk of War with Iran Makes Confrontation a Probability," Independent, January 7, 2012.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/trita-parsi-reckless-talk-of-war-with-iran-makes-confrontation-a-probability-6286410.html

I hope you will visit our "Educators" portal on the CFR website at www.cfr.org/educators, where you will find CFR and "Foreign Affairs" resources designed and packaged especially for the academic community, including modules with teaching notes, event announcements, and discounted "Foreign Affairs" subscriptions. Please don't hesitate to call or email Jamie Weiss-Yagoda at 212.434.9846 or educators@cfr.org should you have any questions.

Best regards,
Irina A. Faskianos
Vice President, National Program & Outreach, Council on Foreign Relations
58 East 68th Street, New York, New York 10065
tel 212.434.9465 cell 201.463.4515 fax 212.434.9829
ifaskianos@cfr.org www.cfr.org