Event

Looming Deadline and Unanswered Questions: What’s Next for the P5+1 and Iran?

November 20, 2014
8:30 am -

Event Description

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Senator Mark Kirk served five terms in the House of Representatives before being elected to the Senate in 2010 and is a veteran of the United States Navy. He serves on four Senate Committees: Appropriations, Banking, HELP (Health, Education, Labor & Pensions), and Aging, and is the Ranking Republican on the Appropriations Subcommittee for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. Senator Kirk is a leader on national security issues, including efforts to address Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, countering terrorism, and working with our allies to combat common enemies. With Senator Robert Menendez, he co-authored the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2013, which includes parameters of an acceptable nuclear deal with Iran and sanctions-in-waiting provisions if an acceptable deal isn’t concluded by January 2015. The Senator was recently published in The Daily Herald on human rights abuses against members of the Baha’i faith in Iran and is an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses.

Congressman Ted Deutch is serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives on behalf of Florida’s 21st district. Rep. Deutch is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, the House Ethics Committee, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in which he serves as the Ranking Member on the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee. A lifelong activist in the pro-Israel community, Rep. Deutch is an established leader on issues related to Iran’s illicit quest for nuclear weapons. Several of his measures, including the Iran Transparency and Accountability Act and the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Promotion Act, earned strong bipartisan support during the 112th Congress and were later signed into law by President Obama as part of the Iran Threat Reduction Act. Rep. Deutch first gained expertise on issues related to Iran’s nuclear weapons program when as a Florida State Senator he authored and passed the first law in the country divesting state pension funds from companies that do business in Iran.

Ambassador Eric S. Edelman is a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.  He retired as a Career Minister from the U.S. Foreign Service on May 1, 2009. He has served in senior positions at the Departments of State and Defense as well as the White House, where he led organizations providing analysis, strategy, policy development, security services, trade advocacy, public outreach, citizen services and congressional relations. Dr. Edelman has been awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, and several Department of State Superior Honor Awards. He is a visiting scholar at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at the Johns Hopkins University and a senior associate of the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Dr. Edelman serves on the board of directors of the Foreign Policy Initiative

Olli Heinonen served 27 years at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Dr. Heinonen was the Deputy Director General of the IAEA, and head of its Department of Safeguards. Prior to that, he was director at the Agency’s various operational divisions, and an inspector including at the IAEA’s overseas office in Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Heinonen led teams of international investigators to examine nuclear programs of concern around the world and inspected nuclear facilities in South Africa, Iraq, North Korea, Syria, Libya and elsewhere, seeking to ensure that nuclear materials were not diverted for military purposes. He led the Agency’s efforts to identify and dismantle nuclear proliferation networks, including the one led by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, and he oversaw its efforts to monitor and contain Iran’s nuclear program. Dr. Heinonen is now a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is the author of several articles, chapters of books, books, and other publications ranging from the IAEA and nuclear non-proliferation issues to regional nuclear developments. His writings and interviews have been published in various newspapers and magazines including: Foreign Policy, The Wall Street Journal, Arms Control Today, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, The New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, and TIME.

Dr. Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. His areas of specialization are Iran, political reform in the Middle East, and Islamist movements and parties. Prior to joining the Council on Foreign Relations, Dr. Takeyh was senior advisor on Iran at the Department of State. He is the author of The Guardians of the Revolution: Iran’s Approach to the World (Oxford University Press, 2009) and Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic (Henry Holt, 2006). Dr. Takeyh has testified frequently in front of various congressional committees and appears regularly on radio and television and has been published, including articles in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, among others.

Mark Dubowitz is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan policy institute, where he leads projects on Iran, sanctions, nonproliferation, and countering electronic repression. Dubowitz is an expert on sanctions and has testified before Congress and advised the administration, Congress, and numerous foreign governments on Iran sanctions issues. He is the co-author of fourteen reports on economic sanctions against Iran. Dubowitz is also a co-chair of the Project on U.S. Middle East Nonproliferation Strategy, a nonpartisan project co-chaired by five nonproliferation and sanctions experts, which produced a 2013 report on U.S. Nonproliferation Strategy for the Changing Middle East. Dubowitz is a senior research fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto where he teaches a graduate course and conducts research on international negotiations, economic sanctions, and Iran’s nuclear program.

Blaise Misztal is the director of the Foreign Policy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, having previously served as the project’s associate director and senior policy analyst. At BPC, Misztal has researched a variety of national security issues, including: Iran and its nuclear program; cybersecurity; stabilizing fragile states; and public diplomacy in the 21st century. He has testified before Congress and published op-eds in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The New Republic, and Roll Call. In addition, Misztal wrote and directed the 2009 “Cyber ShockWave” simulation that aired on CNN. Before joining BPC, Misztal spent a year as a Nuffield Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford University. He was selected as a future leader by the Foreign Policy Initiative in 2010 and named as a National Security Fellow by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in 2011.

About the Foundation for Defense of Democracies

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is a non-profit, non-partisan policy institute dedicated exclusively to promoting pluralism, defending democratic values, and fighting the ideologies that drive terrorism. Founded shortly after the attacks of 9/11, FDD combines policy research, democracy and counterterrorism education, strategic communications, and investigative journalism in support of its mission. For more information, please visit www.defenddemocracy.org.

About the Foreign Policy Initiative

FPI is a non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. FPI seeks to promote an active U.S. foreign policy committed to robust support for democratic allies, human rights, a strong American military equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and strengthening America’s global economic competitiveness. The organization was founded in 2009 and is led by Executive Director Christopher J. Griffin. FPI’s Board of Directors consists of Eric Edelman, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, and Dan Senor. Visit our website at www.foreignpolicyi.org for more information.

About the Bipartisan Policy Center

Founded in 2007 by former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and George Mitchell, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) is a non-profit organization that drives principled solutions through rigorous analysis, reasoned negotiation and respectful dialogue. With projects in multiple issue areas, BPC combines politically-balanced policymaking with strong, proactive advocacy and outreach. As the only Washington, DC-based think tank that actively promotes bipartisanship, BPC works to address the key challenges facing the nation. Our policy solutions are the product of informed deliberations by former elected and appointed officials, business and labor leaders, and academics and advocates who represent both ends of the political spectrum. We are currently focused on health, energy, national and homeland security, the economy, housing, immigration, and governance.

Issues:

International Organizations Iran