Wednesday, 9 December 2015 at 12:00 pm – Wednesday, 9 December 2015 at 5:00 pm
Iran and the West: Where do we go from here?
Iran and the West: Where do we go from here? - Convened by Dr Steve Hurst (MMU)
Date: Wednesday 9th December 2015
Location: Geoffrey Manton Building Lecture Theatre 5, Oxford Road, Manchester M15 6LL
Tickets: £5 (catering provided) – See Eventbrite for tickets
On 14 July 2015, after nine years of off and on negotiations, the international community and Iran finally reached a resolution to their dispute over the nature and legitimacy of the Iranian nuclear programme. This outcome, which many doubted would ever occur, may mark the start of a new era of improved relations with Iran and that country’s reintegration into the international state system, but it may equally prove to be a false dawn given the continuing levels of distrust on both sides and the many ways in which the agreement could unravel.
This symposium examines this issue from two perspectives. In the first session we ask ‘how did we get here?’ What led to the impasse of the past decade? Why have relations between the West and Iran been so profoundly hostile? Why did it prove so difficult to resolve the stand-off over Iran’s nuclear programme? And how was a resolution finally found? In the second session we ask ‘where do we go from here?’ Will this agreement prove to be a turning point in relations between Iran and the West? What can be done to help ensure that that is the case? And what obstacles stand in the way?
Iran Symposium – Participants
Dr Steve Hurst, Reader in Politics, Manchester Metropolitan University
Dr Christian Emery, Lecturer in International Relations, University of Plymouth
Timothy Stafford, Research Analyst, Royal United Services Institute, previously research assistant to the Chairman of the House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee
Dr Kate Hudson, General Secretary, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Professor Anoush Ehteshami, Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah Chair in International Relations University of Durham
Professor Scott Lucas, University of Birmingham, founder and editor of EAWorldview
Steven Hurst is Reader in Politics at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK. His work focuses mainly on US foreign policy toward the Middle East and he is currently working on a history of American policy toward the Iranian nuclear programme.