WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tomorrow, three of the best known Iran experts will convene at the Center for American Progress to discuss a new way forward in Iran and release a new report that provides a sober analysis of policy options in the region. Joseph Cirincione will moderate what promises to be a lively exchange between Geoffrey Kemp, Jacqueline Shire, and Karim Sadjadpour.
The new report, “Contain and Engage: A New Strategy for Countering the Nuclear Crisis with Iran,” authored by American Progress experts Joseph Cirincione and Andrew Grotto. Grotto will open the event with a briefing on the study.
The CAP study details a new strategy to both “Contain and Engage” Iran. Iran has to choose between continual confrontation or a new relationship with the west, based on the technical realities of Iran’s program, Iran’s political culture, and the relative bargaining power of the United States, its partners, and Iran.
Featured Panelists:
Geoffrey Kemp, Director of Regional Strategic Programs, The Nixon Center
Jacqueline Shire, Senior Analyst, The Institute for Science and International Security
Karim Sadjadpour, Senior Iran Analyst, The International Crisis Group
Moderated by:
Joseph Cirincione, Vice President for National Security, Center for American Progress
Briefing on CAP Iran strategy by:
Andrew Grotto, Senior National Security Analyst, Center for American Progress
Time
March 2, 2007, 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Lunch will be served at noon.
Location
Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Map & Directions
Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square or Red Line to Metro Center
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Biographies
Geoffrey Kemp is the Director of Regional Strategic Programs at the Nixon Center. He served in the White House during the first Reagan administration and was Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the National Security Council Staff.
Prior to his current position, he was a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where he was Director of the Middle East Arms Control Project. In the 1970s he worked in the Defense Department in the Policy Planning and Program Analysis and Evaluation Offices and made major contributions to studies on U.S. security policy and options for Southwest Asia. In 1976, while working for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, he prepared a widely publicized report on U.S. Military Sales to Iran. His most recent publication is “The East Moves West” which appeared in the Summer 2006 edition of The National Interest.
Dr. Kemp attended Oxford University, where he also earned his master’s degree. He received his Ph.D. in political science at M.I.T.
Jacqueline Shire is a Senior Analyst at the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) providing research and analysis on Iran’s nuclear program as well as proliferation challenges posed by North Korea and other countries. She is also a consultant on WMD and proliferation issues for ABC News.
Shire spent eight years in the State Department’s Bureau of Political Military Affairs working on defense trade, proliferation and weapons of mass destruction. Her assignments included tours of duty at the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York, and at the U.N.’s Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. At the State Department she helped develop initiatives to address the proliferation risks posed by weapons scientists of the former Soviet Union, and for the disposition of surplus weapons plutonium. She was a member of the U.S. delegation negotiating with North Korea for two rounds of discussions in 1993.
Ms. Shire holds an M.I.A. from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs with a focus on security policy and Middle Eastern studies and a B.A. from Columbia College.
Karim Sadjadpour is the Senior Iran Analyst for the International Crisis Group. He has been based in both Tehran and Washington, D.C. He was formerly an associate producer at National Geographic and a visiting fellow at the American University of Beirut from 2003-2004.
Sadjadpour has written on Iranian society and politics, Iran’s nuclear program, Iran-Iraq relations, and U.S.-Iran relations. He is a regular contributor to BBC World and National Public Radio, and has also published pieces in the Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, New Republic, and others.
Sadjadpour is a graduate of the University of Michigan as well as the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. He has been the recipient of numerous academic fellowships, including a Fulbright scholarship. He is educated in many languages, including English, Farsi, Spanish, Italian, and Arabic.
Joseph Cirincione is Senior Vice President for National Security and International Policy. Prior to joining the Center in May 2006, he served as director for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace for eight years. He is the author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons (Columbia University Press, Spring 2007), Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats (Second Edition, 2005), and co-author of Universal Compliance: A Strategy for Nuclear Security (March 2005). He teaches at the graduate School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Mr. Cirincione worked for nine years in the U.S. House of Representatives on the professional staff of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Government Operations, and served as staff director of the Military Reform Caucus. He is the author of numerous articles on nuclear weapons issues, the producer of two DVDs on proliferation, and is a frequent commentator on these issues in the media. He has held positions at the Henry L. Stimson Center, the U.S. Information Agency, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He is an honors graduate of Boston College and holds a Masters of Science with highest honors from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service.
Andrew J. Grotto is a Senior National Security Analyst at the Center for American Progress, where he specializes in U.S. strategic policy and the proliferation of nuclear and biological weapons.
His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, The UK Guardian, The Baltimore Sun, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and a variety of scholarly journals. Grotto recently co-authored “Restoring American Military Power: A Progressive QDR” (Center for American Progress, 2006), a comprehensive assessment of U.S. military strategy, and “Biosecurity: A Comprehensive Action Plan.”
He has lectured at Georgetown University on U.S. nuclear weapons policy, U.S. defense budgeting, and U.S. defense strategy. He is a frequent radio and television commentator on U.S. national security policy, particularly as it relates to the proliferation of nuclear weapons, U.S. nuclear weapons policy, and U.S. national security strategy. He is a 2006 Manfred Wörner Fellow with the German Marshall Fund, a member of the Unified Security Budget Task Force, and a member of a China Policy Task Force.
He received his J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall), where he served as an editor of the Berkeley Journal of International Law. He received his Master’s Degree from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Kentucky, where he was a Gaines Fellow.