• IUB Newsroom »
• Media advisory: Expert panel to discuss Iran nuclear deal at IU

Media advisory: Expert panel to discuss Iran nuclear deal at IU

School of Global and International Studies hosts 'Decision Time on Iran' on Sept. 8

• Sept. 1, 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- As Congress begins its debate on the international agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear program, the Indiana University School of Global and International Studies is convening a panel of leading IU experts to address the regional consequences, national security implications and nonproliferation aspects of the proposed deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

WHAT: “Decision Time on Iran”

WHEN: Sept. 8. Reception and refreshments at 6:30 p.m.; panel starts promptly at 7 p.m.

WHERE: The auditorium of the Global and International Studies Building, 355 N. Jordan Ave., next to the Wells Library. The auditorium is on the lower level of the east wing near the south entrance.

WHO: The panel will feature leading scholars and practitioners with expertise in Iran, the broader Middle East, nuclear non-proliferation and Congress. The panelists are:

• Asma Afsaruddin, professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures and an expert on Islamic religious and political thought, who will address how the agreement is seen in Iranian society and the broader region.
• Jamsheed Choksy, Distinguished Professor of Central Eurasian Studies, who will address competing Iranian government views.
• Lee H. Hamilton, former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Distinguished Professor of Practice at the School of Global and International Studies and director of the IU Center on Congress, who will address the national security implications and the upcoming vote in Congress.
• Feisal Istrabadi, founding director of the IU Center for the Study of the Middle East, Iraq's ambassador and deputy permanent representative to the United Nations in 2004-07 and Professor of Practice in the School of Global and International Studies and the Maurer School of Law, who will address the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in the context of the broader Middle East region.
• Lee Feinstein, dean of the School of Global and International Studies and former U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Poland from 2009 to 2012, who served on the negotiating teams of a number of nonproliferation and arms control agreements. Feinstein will moderate the panel.

IU made one of the nation’s largest investments in global studies with the establishment in 2012 of the School of Global and International Studies. The school's new LEED Gold-Certified state-of-the-art building opened this fall, bringing together 250 scholars who cover every part of the world and teach up to 70 languages.

The School of Global and International Studies is composed of four academic departments, seven federally funded Title VI national resource and language centers, three federally funded Language Flagship programs and 21 international institutes. Building on two centuries of tradition and excellence in international studies, the School of Global and International Studies is adding 25 new tenure-track faculty to its ranks. The school is committed to interpreting and shaping international events through scholarship and public engagement.