Can We Negotiate with Iran?

In his new book, Negotiating with Iran: Wrestling with the Ghosts of History, Ambassador John Limbert examined four case studies of United States-Iran negotiations to see what can be learned from them. Limbert joined the Council last Monday to present his findings and explained that any negotiations entered into by the United States with Iran [...]

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Council to Host Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran

This Monday, November 16, Ambassador John Limbert will join the Council to discuss the US approach to negotiating with Iran. Limbert, who has a distinguished history with the US Foreign Service, was just named to the post of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Iran. The announcement came thirty years to the week of his being taken [...]

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Academic Given 12-year Sentence in Iran

Next Wednesday, October 28, the Council will be joined by Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari. In 2007, Esfandiari was imprisoned in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison because the Iranian government believed her to be a part of an American conspiracy for “regime change” in Iran. Her arrest sparked international outrage and protests from the likes of Barack [...]

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Reducing the World’s Nuclear Arsenal

Charles Ferguson, Director of the Council on Foreign Relations-sponsored Independent Task Force on US Nuclear Weapons Policy, and Scott Sagan, a Task Force member, joined the World Affairs Council on Monday for a very timely discussion of nuclear arms reduction and elimination. They spoke about the steps the Obama administration can take to lead the [...]

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Iran Discloses New Nuclear Site

The disclosure on Friday of a nuclear site near the city of Qum and Sunday’s test-fire of three short-range missiles has put the world’s focus on Iran. Iran insists it has done nothing wrong, but leaders of the United States, France, and Great Britain have called on the country to allow intense international inspections of [...]

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Pipeline Politics

The construction of the Nabucco pipeline, slated for completion in 2012, is part of the effort to reduce European dependence on Russian gas amid concerns and fears that Russia, the supplier of between 30 and 40% of Europe’s natural gas, will use its economic leverage for political gains. However, recent developments in Turkmenistan, China, Iran, [...]

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Anecdotes on Life in the Middle East

Monday evening at the World Affairs Council,  Neil MacFarquhar, UN Bureau Chief to The New York Times, offered his unique perspective on life in the Middle East. With a collection of anecdotes collected over 25 years of both personal and professional experience in the region, MacFarquhar brought the diversity and character of the people to [...]

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Obama’s Inheritance: The Opportunity Costs of the Iraq War

David Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for The New York Times, drew a large and attentive audience to our auditorium last night for his lecture, “The World Obama Confronts.” Although accounts of the Iraq War often focus on its direct costs, Sanger, in his lecture and recently published first book, The Inheritance, explores the depth of [...]

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Madeleine Albright on Priorities for Obama’s Administration

Today, the Council on Foreign Relations hosted the first session of the Center for Preventative Action Symposium on preventative priorities for the next administration. Madeleine K. Albright, Principal, The Albright Group and former U.S. Secretary of State, moderated the event with CFR President Richard N. Haass. Interestingly, panels throughout the day did not [...]

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