This class, led by a renowned expert on Middle East politics, offers an in-depth look at what makes Iran tick, its colorful and fascinating history, and its ill-defined but clearly hostile relationships with Israel and the United States.

$10 per class or $50 for the series. Zoom recording(s) will be sent via email after payment is received.
Discount will be applied automatically at checkout when all six classes are added to your cart.

All recordings in the series:

JAN 30 | Geopolitics: Iranian geography, natural resources and political neighborhood. Iran’s early settlers and first national religion, Zoroastrianism. Aryans, Turks, Kurds and Afghans. Cyrus I, the Jews, the Greeks and the Romans.

FEB 06 | Persia: Iran during the European Dark Ages. Arabs and Islam. Imam Ali and the Umayyads. The Sunni/Shia split defines the political fault-lines that divide the Middle East today. Discussion of Iranian and Iraqi Shi’a religion.

FEB 13 | Europe and Iran: The Safavid and Qajar dynasties. British takeover of Iranian oil and assets. Iran in World War I. Reza Shah Pahlavi and the Russians. Iran during World War II. Mohammad Shah Pahlavi. The CIA and the Mossadegh affair.

FEB 20 | The U.S. and Iran: Nuclear ambitions. SAVAK. Ayatollah Khomeini and the hostage crises of 1979. The rescue. Exporting the revolution. The Iran-Iraq war. The Iran-Contra affair. Flight 655 and the USS Vincennes. Radical Islam and Hezbollah.

FEB 27 | Era of Animosity: Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei. 9/11 and the Taliban. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Green Movement. Hassan Rouhani. Iran’s nuclear program draws international sanctions. Terrorism--al Qaeda and ISIS. Qassem Soleimani and the wall of proxies—Iraq militias, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Houthis.

MAR 06 | Iran Today: The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The Trump sanctions. Ebrahim Raisi and the hard-liners. Military confrontation - the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Support for Hamas. Confronting Israel.