🍁 Special Zoom event: The Iran Crisis

When: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Where: On Zoom
Time: 2 – 3:30 pm PT (this event will not be recorded)
Our Speaker: Abbas Qaidari

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Our focus:

Iran is entering its most consequential moment since the 1979 revolution. After more than a decade of nationwide uprisings – from the Green Movement in 2009 to the Women, Life, Freedom protests and the current wave of demonstrations – the Islamic Republic faces its deepest crisis of legitimacy. Economic collapse, internal fragmentation, and growing public defiance have placed the regime under unprecedented pressure. At the same time, regional war, Israeli strikes, and rising US–Iran tensions have transformed Iran from a closed authoritarian system into a central fault line of global geopolitics.

This talk will examine the evolving situation inside Iran and the growing convergence between domestic resistance, international pressure, and external military deterrence.

Key focus areas will include:

– A History of Defiance: How repeated uprisings since 2009 have reshaped Iran’s political landscape and why today’s protests are different.
– Leadership & Legitimacy: The re-emergence of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi as a unifying political alternative and symbol of a post-Islamic Republic Iran.
– International Leverage: Why diplomatic statements are no longer enough and how US military pressure, sanctions, and deterrence shape the regime’s survival calculus.
– Military Scenarios: What limited US or allied military action could look like, and how it would affect Iran’s power structure, the IRGC, and regional stability.
– A Post-Regime Iran: What a democratic Iran could mean for the Middle East, global energy markets, Israel’s security, and the balance of power with Russia and China.
– Canada & Iran: The future of Canadian–Iranian relations in a post-Islamic Republic era, from diplomacy to diaspora engagement and regional security policy.

This is not a discussion about if Iran will change, but how, when, and with what consequences for the international order.

Our speaker…

Abbas Qaidari specializes in Persian Gulf security and Iranian military strategy, bringing over a decade of influential research. He now resides in Canada and previously served as a Senior Fellow at Tehran’s Center for Strategic Studies (2015–2017). His independent analyses—widely cited by institutions such as the U.S. Congress, the U.S. military, the United Nations, and other international bodies—have appeared in prominent outlets including the Atlantic Council and Al-Monitor.

Abbas leverages advanced open-source intelligence, conflict simulation, and strategic modeling to provide deep insights into Iran’s deterrence strategies and proxy operations, and he regularly presents at forums and think tanks across the UK, EU, and U.S. He holds a Master of Arts degree from the School of Law and Politics (Allameh Tabatabai University – Tehran) and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the School of Political Science (Islamic Azad University – Tehran).

To register…

Click here and please follow the instructions: The Iran Crisis