The victory of Rouhani represents the defeat of the most peripheral groups in the Iranian political spectrum. In a day, one could say, Ahmadinejad and his supporters arguably lost all of their clout and popular appeal. The support they had amassed during the previous eight years apparently melted away, with no-one ultimately making a fuss about the rejection of Ahmadinejad’s candidate for the presidency. This is the first significant development to note – the neoconservative order has been shattered. Exploring the context and background of his election, Professor Ehteshami will question what drives President Rouhani’s worldview and what constitutes his foreign policy agenda. He will also explore what his election victory tells us about Iran and where it may be heading in the future.
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Event Details
LSE MIDDLE EAST CENTRE AND KUWAIT PROGRAMME PUBLIC SEMINAR
Speaker: Professor Anoush Ehteshami, ESRC Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World in the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University
Chair: Dr Toby Dodge, LSE
Date: Wednesday 27 November 2013
Time: 16.30-18.00
Location: Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE
Attendance: This event is free and open to all on a first come first served basis. Our events are very well attended, please make sure to arrive early. We cannot guarantee entry
Speaker
Professor Anoush Ehteshami is the Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah Chair in International Relations and Director of the HH Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah Programme in International Relations, Regional Politics and Security. He is Joint Director of the RCUK-funded centre of excellence, the Durham-Edinburgh-Manchester Universities’ Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW), whose research focus since 2012 has been on the ‘Arab World in Transition’. He was the University’s Dean of Internationalisation, 2009-2011 and was the founding Head of the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University (2004-9). He has been a Fellow of the World Economic Forum, and was elected in 2011 as a member of the WEF’s foremost body, the Global Agenda Councils. He was Vice-President and Chair of Council of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) between 2000-2003.
In addition to having published 21 books and monographs, he has over 90 articles published in academic journals and edited volumes.