The recent attacks on two of Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic missions in Iran have exacerbated sectarian tensions in the Middle East. Is the region on the brink of another bloody conflict, pitting two major regional powers against each other? Iran and Saudi Arabia are already fighting each other in Syria — Tehran through its allies like Hezbollah and Riyadh via various proxies in the anti-Assad rebellion — and in Yemen, where Houthi rebels supported by Iran are fighting Saudi forces on the kingdom’s own border. However, a direct conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia would have immediate and dramatic effects felt throughout the world.
The Obama White House hoped that its nuclear deal with Iran would help stabilize the Middle East, but it seems rather to have energized the clerical regime in its efforts for regional domination. What are the choices ahead for this administration and its successor as it seeks to extinguish, rather than stoke, the region’s furies? How should policymakers deal with Iran? How should they counsel longstanding American allies, like Saudi Arabia? What impact could the latest tensions have on stability in Gulf states such as Bahrain?
On Friday, January 15, Hudson Institute hosted a timely lunchtime panel with experts Ali Alfoneh, Michael Doran, and Phillip Smyth, moderated by Lee Smith.
Please join Hudson Institute for a fireside chat with Senior Fellow and Keystone Defense Initiative Director Rebeccah Heinrichs and John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point and co-director of the Urban Warfare Project.
Join Hudson Institute and the Ben Franklin Fellowship for a two-panel discussion examining US policy as it confronts the crisis of terror in Nigeria.
Join Hudson Institute's Center for the Economics of the Internet for a keynote address given by Tricia Paoletta on the Trump administration's progress in managing and reallocating the electromagnetic radio frequency spectrum from the federal domain.
Join Hudson Institute for a discussion with Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Senior Fellow Harold Furchtgott-Roth.
