The first event in the Center's urgent series offering different perspectives on the 2026 Iran War.
Thursday, March 5, 202612:00 PM - 1:00 PM (Pacific Time)Webinar
12:00 PM Pacific / 3:00 PM Eastern / 20:00 UK / 22:00 Israel–Palestine
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Organized by the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Co-sponsored by the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley, UCLA Center for Middle East Development, and UCLA Department of Public Policy.
About the Event
Last Saturday, February 28, the United States and Israel attacked Iran, killing the Ayatollah Khamenei and other regime political and military leaders, targeting the country's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and destroying other military targets. Iran responded with missile and drone attacks against Israel, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Jordan, Oman and Cyprus. As of this writing, the war is still ongoing and the outcome is unknown. Will the Islamic regime fall? Will the Iranians be able to inflict significant losses on Israel and US assets in the region? What are the short- and medium-term likely scenarios for Iran, for Israel and the region?
Click here to read Behnam Ben Taleblu's recent piece in Foreign Affairs about regime change in Iran.
About the Speakers
Behnam Ben Taleblu is senior director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies' (FDD) Iran Program, where he oversees the breadth and depth of FDD’s work on Iran in addition to serving as a senior fellow specializing in Iranian security and political issues. For well over a decade, Behnam has supported FDD’s Iran program as a senior fellow, research fellow, and senior Iran analyst. Prior to his time at FDD, Behnam worked on non-proliferation issues at an arms control think tank in Washington. Leveraging his subject-matter expertise and native Persian-language skills, Behnam closely tracks a wide range of Iran-related functional and regional topics including nuclear non-proliferation, ballistic missiles and drones, sanctions, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies, the foreign and security policy of the Islamic Republic, and internal Iranian politics. Frequently called upon to brief journalists, congressional staff, diplomatic, military, academic, and policy audiences in Washington, across the United States, and around the world, Behnam has testified before various committees in the U.S. Congress, the Canadian Parliament, and the UK House of Commons. Behnam’s analysis has been quoted in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Fox News, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Politico, and Axios, among others.
Ron Hassner (discussant) is Professor of International Conflict and Religion at UC Berkeley. He is a recipient of the Berkeley Undergraduate Political Science Association’s “Distinguished Teaching Award”, the Berkeley Division of Social Sciences’ “Distinguished Teaching Award”, Berkeley’s campus-wide “Distinguished Teaching Award”, and the American Political Science Association’s “Outstanding Teaching in Political Science Award”. He is a faculty director of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies and he holds the Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies at UC Berkeley. His research explores the role of ideas, practices and symbols in international security with particular attention to the relationship between religion and violence. His published work focuses on territorial disputes, religion in the military, conflicts over holy places, the pervasive role of religion on the modern battlefield, and on the politics of interrogational torture.
DISCLAIMER: The views or opinions of our guest speakers and the content of their presentations do not necessarily reflect the views of the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Hosting speakers does not constitute an endorsement of the speaker's views or opinions.
Sponsor(s): Center for Middle East Development, Department of Public Policy, The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, UC Berkeley