LIVE EVENT: Saudi-Iranian Relations, A Conversation with Dr. Andrew Scott Cooper

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The relationship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran has often been referred to as a regional Cold War. Their open hostility significantly increased as a result of the recent execution of Shi’a cleric Nimr Baqir al-Nimr. With this tension in mind, the AIC and Marymount Manhattan College will feature a discussion with Dr. Andrew Scott Cooper to explore the sources of the conflict and the prospects for reconciliation.

Video

Watch the event live-streamed below

Photos

Photo Credit: Dominika Lapinska

Monday February 8, 6-8pm

Marymount Manhattan College
Regina Peruggi Room
221 East 71 Street

Dr. Andrew Scott Cooper

Andrew Scott Cooper is an historian and commentator on U.S.-Iran relations, global energy markets, and geopolitical risk. He is the author of The Oil Kings: How the US, Iran and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East and the forthcoming title The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Last Days of Imperial Iran. He holds masters' degrees in journalism and strategic studies and a Ph.D. in the history of US-Iran relations.

Dr Cooper was a first scholar to document the Saudi tactic of flooding world oil markets with surplus crude to achieve its national security objectives. The Oil Kings is now used as a course book at universities including Columbia University, where he teaches a senior seminar in US-Iran relations, and also at the US Defense Department where his emphasis on the importance of historical awareness is used to help with practical policy planning. His forthcoming book, the subject of a recent New York Times article, uses the fall of the Shah of Iran as a case study to explore in the hazards authoritarian regimes face when they are forced to or decide to introduce political and economic reforms.

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Kayvon Afshari

Kayvon Afshari managed the campaign to elect Hooshang Amirahmadi as President of Iran. In this role, he directed the campaign’s event planning, publicity, online social media, web analytics, and delivered speeches. Mr. Afshari has also been working at the CBS News foreign desk for over five years. He has coordinated coverage of Iran’s 2009 post-election demonstrations, the Arab Spring, the earthquake in Haiti, and many other stories of international significance. He holds a Master in International Relations from New York University’s Department of Politics, and graduated with distinction from McGill University in 2007 with a double major in political science and Middle Eastern studies. At NYU, his research focused on quantitative analysis and the Middle East with an emphasis on US-Iran relations. In his 2012 Master’s thesis, he devised a formula to predict whether Israel would launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, concluding that an overt strike would not materialize.