Since the revolution of 1979, the Islamist ruling class in Tehran has maintained that Iran’s foreign policy is anti-status quo and militant if necessary. Its agenda has notably included positions that are anti-American and anti-Israel, alongside a strong commitment to aiding militant groups, particularly in the Arab World in countries like Lebanon and among the Palestinian people. From the outset, the United States, Israel, and other regional states have confronted Tehran’s foreign policy course, while many Iranians inside the country have opposed it as well.
But what do Iranians today really think about the country’s foreign policy agenda? How do they view key issues like Tehran’s support for militant groups abroad, ideological opposition to Israel’s right to exist, and the costly commitment to challenge the United States in the Middle East?
As the region teeters on the brink of a larger war, this panel of diverse voices will highlight and discuss key findings from an opinion survey conducted inside of Iran in late September and early October 2024.
Speakers
Yousof Azizi
PhD candidate, Public Administration and Public Affairs, Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs
Arash Ghafouri
CEO, Stasis Consulting
Saeid Golkar
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Marjan Keypour
Non-Resident Scholar, Iran Program, Middle East Institute
Alex Vatanka (Moderator)
Director, Iran Program, Middle East Institute
Extended Speaker Bios
Arash Ghafouri is the founder and CEO of Stasis Consulting and the pollster behind surveycenter.io. Arash is a data scientist with more than 20 years of experience in project management and data analytics. Arash earned his MBA from Carleton University in Canada and is a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP). He also holds a master’s degree in political management (campaign management) from George Washington University. Prior to founding Stasis, Arash served as the CEO of the polling firm IPOS.
Marjan Keypour (Greenblatt) is a human rights activist and advocate for women and minorities in Iran. She is the Founder and Director of the Alliance for Rights of All Minorities (ARAM), an international network of activists that promotes equal rights for all citizens in Iran, as well as of StopFemicideIran, an advocacy campaign that monitors and documents acts of femicide and memorializes their victims. Marjan is the co-chair of Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Task Force on Middle East Minorities and is an advisory board member of the Atlantic Council’s Iran Strategy Project and New Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI).
Yousof Azizi is a PhD candidate in Public Policy at Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs. His dissertation focuses on US foreign policy decision-making, presidential studies, and Iran's nuclear program. Yousof has previously worked as a research assistant at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School and at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. He is a frequent commentator on US-Iran relations, the Iran nuclear agreement (JCPOA), and Iran’s regional policies, appearing in both English and Persian media, including BBC Persian and Voice of America. Yousof holds a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He also holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in chemical engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran.
Saeid Golkar is a UC Foundation associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a senior advisor at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). He received his PhD in Political Science in 2008. Since then, he has held a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, researched and taught at Northwestern University, and served as a Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Alex Vatanka is the founding Director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute. He specializes in Middle Eastern regional security affairs with a particular focus on Iran. He was formerly a Senior Analyst at Jane’s Information Group in London. Alex is also a Senior Fellow in Middle East Studies at the US Air Force Special Operations School (USAFSOS) at Hurlburt Field and teaches as an Adjunct Professor at DISAS at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Born in Tehran, he holds a BA in Political Science (Sheffield University, UK), and an MA in International Relations (Essex University, UK), and is fluent in Persian and Danish. He is the author of two books: “The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran: The United States, Foreign Policy and Political Rivalry Since 1979” (2021) and “Iran and Pakistan: Security, Diplomacy, and American Influence” (2015). He is presently working on his third book “Grand Contest: The Rivalry of Iran, America and Israel in the Arab World.
(Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)