The virtual seminar will be held from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. (E.T.)

The United States and Iran have been fighting for over 450 days, starting with the Twelve-Day US-Israeli war on Iran of June 2025, pausing with the subsequent 14-point US-Iran memorandum of understanding, and resuming with the US attacks that began in February 2026. This conflict, which started as an effort at regime change, has transformed into a regional and international crisis as Iran has retaliated against nearby US bases in Kuwait, Oman, Syria, Jordan, Bahrain, and Qatar, and attacked neighboring countries allied to the United States, with increasing political, military, and economic consequences. The US has moved to a campaign of attrition using blockades and sanctions to further imperil Iran's military capacity, economy, and society. This presentation will reflect on the status of the war and its expansion, giving particular attention to the implications of the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz for regional and global security and trade, the growing risks of a wider and potentially prolonged war, and the domestic politics of Iran. The talk will also assess options to prevent further escalation and agree a path toward peace.

About the speaker: Seyed Hossein Mousavian is a Visiting Research Collaborator with the SPIA Program on Science and Global Security. He retired in May 2025 after 15 years as a Middle East Security and Nuclear Policy Specialist at the Program. He served as Iran's Ambassador to Germany, Head of the Foreign Relations Committee of Iran's National Security Council, and as Spokesman for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the international community. He is currently working on a book on the rise and fall of the Iran nuclear deal, and is the author of six books, including A Middle East Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction (2020), Iran and the United States, An Insider's View on the Failed Past and the Road to Peace (2014), and Iranian Nuclear Crisis, A Memoir (2012). He recently published the op-ed, "Iran war: Trump can continue the same failed policies - or shape a historic legacy".