idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Nachrichten, Termine, Experten

Grafik: idw-Logo
Grafik: idw-Logo

idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft

Science Video Project
idw-Abo

idw-News App:

AppStore

Google Play Store

Event


institutionlogo

10/27/2022 - 10/27/2022 | Hamburg

Iran: Pivot to the East amidst Domestic Repression

Through the GIGA Talks series, the Berlin office shares the results of the GIGA’s research and its regional expertise on global trends and current events in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

As protests and human rights violations prevail in Iran, the Islamic Republic continues to orient itself towards the East. It is deepening its relations with major Asian and Eurasian powers such as Russia, China, and India. Iran recently announced its intention to become a member of BRICS. It has also signed a strategic “25-Year Roadmap” with China and recently joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization; it is facing a deadlock in nuclear negotiations with the Western powers while selling armed drones to Russia and promoting various geoeconomic initiatives involving China, Russia, India, and other Eurasian actors. Domestically, the government is experiencing mass protests that threaten its legitimacy and cooperating with other authoritarian states on domestic repression. Regardless of the outcome of JCPOA negotiations, Iran, which can be called a Eurasian swing state, is likely to “turn to the east” – as recently announced by the country’s leaders. 

This GIGA Talk seeks to shed light on this key strategic development by addressing the following questions: How substantive is this “turn”? What are the challenges for Iran in realising it? Given the increasing proximity between China, Russia, and Iran, can we meaningfully start talking about an “Eastern bloc” – as some analysts already do? Will this turn (and the Ukraine war) lead to authoritarian solidarity between China, Russia, and Iran? If so, will this close alignment make quelling dissent easier for them or will it be detrimental to their legitimacy? How does this “turn” affect regional security and global energy markets? And, finally, how can the European Union in general and Germany in particular best respond and adapt to such shifts? 

Speakers: 
Dr. Mohammadbagher Forough is a Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies.

Barbara Slavin is Director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, Washington, D.C.

Discussant: 
Gregory Bledjian is Head of Division Middle East at the German Federal Foreign Office.

Moderator:
Prof. Dr. Eckart Woertz is Director of the GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies.

Information on participating / attending:
The event will be held in English. We would like to ask you to register for this event. The registration is free of charge.

Date:

10/27/2022 16:00 - 10/27/2022 17:15

Event venue:

Online Event
Hamburg
Hamburg
Germany

Target group:

Scientists and scholars, all interested persons

Email address:

Relevance:

international

Subject areas:

Politics

Types of events:

Seminar / workshop / discussion

Entry:

10/19/2022

Sender/author:

Verena Schweiger

Department:

Fachabteilung Kommunikation

Event is free:

yes

Language of the text:

English

URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event72760


Help

Search / advanced search of the idw archives
Combination of search terms

You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.

Brackets

You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).

Phrases

Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.

Selection criteria

You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).

If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).