The next event of the CIC National Capital Branch’s Middle East Study Group (MESG) will be held on Tuesday, 23 February 2021 (17:00-18:00hrs Ottawa time) on Zoom.

The distinguished guest speaker for this event is Dr. Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an eminent award-winning scholar and analyst focussing on international relations and diplomacy. This event is an attempt to discuss the current events in the Middle East, particularly the anticipated developments regarding potential renewal of talks regarding JCPOA, as well as some of the potential Biden administration policies which are ostensibly designed to seek an inclusive security dialogue in the Persian Gulf as a first step toward peace building and shifting the burden of security to the regional states themselves.

Trita Parsi is the 2010 recipient of the $200,000 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. He is an award-winning author with a focus on US foreign policy in the Middle East. His first book, Treacherous Alliance – The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran and the US (Yale University Press, 2007) won the Grawemeyer award and Council of Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Award in 2008 (Silver medallion). His second book, A Single Roll of the Dice – Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran (Yale University Press, 2012) was selected as The Best Book on The Middle East in 2012 by Foreign Affairs. His latest book – Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy (Yale University Press, 2017) – reveals the behind the scenes story to the historic nuclear deal with Iran. Dr. Parsi is the Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and the former President of the largest Iranian-American grassroots organization in the US, the National Iranian American Council. He has taught at Johns Hopkins University, New York University and George Washington University. He currently teaches at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington DC.

Please direct any advance questions to Hamid Jorjani, Chair, MESG at: hamjorjani@gmail.com by Monday 22 February 2021.