The third event in the Center's urgent series offering different perspectives on the 2026 Iran War.
Thursday, March 12, 202611:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Pacific Time)Webinar
11:00 AM Pacific / 2:00 PM Eastern / 18:00 UK / 20:00 Israel–Palestine
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Co-organized by the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and the UCLA Center for Middle East Development. Co-sponsored by the UCLA Department of Public Policy.
About the Event
The United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, 2026. The war has now spread across most of the Middle East, with Iran firing missiles and drones at US assets and non-US targets in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Oman, Qatar, Iraq and Syria. The conflict raises profoundly important questions for the region's future. Will the Islamic Republic collapse? If so, what sort of government will replace it? How will the war impact the region's future security architecture? What new alignments and new contestations will emerge within the region? How will the war impact the region's relationship with the United States, Russia and China? Please join us for a fascinating and important discussion with leading experts from the Arab world to discuss these and many other issues.
About the Speakers
Karim Haggag is the Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) a leading global independent institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. He is a former career Egyptian diplomat with over 25 years of service in Egypt’s diplomatic corps serving in numerous positions focusing Middle East regional security, arms control and non-proliferation, and Arab-Israeli diplomacy. Prior to joining SIPRI he was a Professor of Practice at the School of Global Affairs and (GAPP) and Director of the Global Affairs program at the American University in Cairo, and a visiting professor at the Near East and South Asia Center for Strategic Studies National Defense University in Washington DC (2011-2013). He is currently a non-resident fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is a graduate of The American University in Cairo, and has earned an MA in war studies from King’s College in London.
Joseph Bahout is the Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) at the American University of Beirut (AUB), where he is also Associate Professor of Practice in Political Studies. Prior to that, he had been a visiting Non-Resident Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment’s Middle East Program in Washington DC, Professor of Middle East Politics at Sciences Po Paris, and served as Permanent Consultant for the Policy Planning Unit at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Joseph Bahout is currently member of the Board of the Arab Thought Forum, of the Editorial Board of Revue Esprit, and of the Scientific Council of the Le Rubicon research and publications network. He is also a non-resident Fellow of the Geneva Center for Security Policy.
Professor Steven L. Spiegel (moderator) serves as Director of the Center for Middle East Development at UCLA. Through the innovative and informal negotiation techniques he has developed, Dr. Spiegel helps produce cutting-edge ideas for promoting Middle East regional security and cooperation. His work in conflict resolution and regional cooperation goes back more than two decades. Spiegel has taught political science at UCLA since 1966—a year before he received his PhD from Harvard. His co-authored volume, World Politics in a New Era (Oxford, 2013), is now in its sixth edition. His research on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East has resulted in numerous books, articles, and papers.
Professor Steven E. Zipperstein (moderator) is the Director of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. He teaches in the Department of Public Policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. He is a Visiting Professor at Tel Aviv University Law School and a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. He serves as a Distinguished Senior Scholar at the UCLA Center for Middle East Development and as a Senior Fellow at The Hague Initiative for International Cooperation in the Netherlands. Zipperstein is the author of three peer-reviewed books, most recently The Legal Case for Palestine: A Critical Assessment (Routledge, 2024).
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