As the world weighs its options on Iran's developing nuclear program, Robin Wright reflects on the history of the US-Iran relationship.
Bio
Robert Litwak
Robert Litwak is Director of International Security Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a Consultant to the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Dr. Litwak served on the National Security Council staff as Director for Nonproliferation in the first Clinton administration.
His most recent books are Rogue States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Containment after the Cold War and Regime Change: U.S. Strategy through the Prism of 9/11.
Dr. Litwak has held visiting fellowships at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences, Oxford University, and the United States Institute of Peace. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and received a doctorate in international relations from the London School of Economics.
Giandomenico Picco
Giandomenico Picco, an Under Secretary General of the United Nations, is the Personal Representative of the Secretary General for the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations. He is also the CEO of GDP Associates, Inc. in New York City, and President of the non-governmental Peace Strategies Project in Geneva, Switzerland.
He graduated from the University of Padua with a degree in political science. He holds a Masters of Arts degree in International Relations and Comparative Politics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a diploma in European Integration Studies from the University of Amsterdam.
During his career at the United Nations, Mr. Picco was Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs from 1973 to 1992. Notable achievements during this time included the United Nations efforts leading to the release of the Western hostages in Lebanon and the negotiations which led to the cease fire between Iran and Iraq. He represented the Secretary General in the negotiations of the Geneva Accords (1998) on Afghanistan and in the Rainbow Warrior arbitration.
Mr. Picco has received numerous awards and honorary degrees, including the President's Special Award for Exceptional Service from the U.S., the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Order of the Cedre du Liban from the President of Lebanon, and others. His personal account of the Lebanon hostage case was published as a book entitled Man without a Gun.
John Tirman
John Tirman is the executive director of the Center for International Studies at MIT. Previously he was a Fulbright Scholar in Cyprus. He has written several books, including Spoils of War and Making the Money Sing: Private Wealth and Public Power in the Search for Peace.
Mr. Tirman's articles have appeared in The Nation, Boston Review, the New York Times, and Los Angeles Times.
Robin Wright
Robin Wright is a journalist and foreign policy analyst. Since October 2010, she has been a joint senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. During her fellowship, she will work on two books, Jihad Against the Jihad and The Iran Primer, the latter of which is about the thinkers and trends that will define the future of the Islamic world over the next decade.
Wright has reported from more than a 140 countries on six continents for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Sunday Times of London, CBS News and the Christian Science Monitor. Her foreign tours include the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and several years as a roving foreign correspondent. Wright has covered a dozen wars and several revolutions and most recently covered U.S. foreign policy for the Washington Post.
Among her many awards, Wright has received the U.N. Correspondent's Gold Medal, the National Magazine Award for reportage from Iran in The New Yorker, and the Overseas Press Club Award for "best reporting in any medium requiring exceptional courage and initiative" for coverage of African wars. She has also been the recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant. Wright has been a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Brookings Institution, Yale University, Duke University, Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. She lectures extensively around the United States and has appeared on programs on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and PBS.
Wright's books include The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran, Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam, Flashpoints: Promise and Peril in a New World and In the Name of God: The Khomeini Decade. She received both her master's and bachelor's degrees from the University of Michigan.
Good panel what would have made it great is to have an Israeli representative on the Panel, Professor Dershowitz. An old Persian saying "Keep your enemy close, for a smile is worth a thousand surprises" The republic of Islam follows the Koran closely and one of the more common knowledge is that any agreement treaty, just plain lieing is a strategic acceptable path. How can you trust a ideology that wants to dominate and believes that if you die in the midst of this program, Paradise is your reward, Yes I kill you then go to heaven, its very difficult to deal with. Israel was missing in this discussion, they are the ones being threatened. Islam is not ready to be questioned, Iran takes advantage of this! The Supreme leader is the problem, I`m the King of the castle you all are dirty rascal! The King must die so the people can live! No one mentioned women rights in Iran!
Why would any Country in their right mind trust anything that comes out of Washington?
We screwed Iran once and put a despot in power with his secret police that killed many innocent people,why would they have any dealings with Washington now.
I don't know about anyone else, but it turns my stomach to belong to a Country that has used deceit and fraud to destroy so many other Countries. Central America,Middle East and Latin America , we have exploited and killed so many innocent people in these places it's sickening. If it wasn't our military it was our Government sponsored Corporations ...Conquer ,exploit and throwaway Countries and lives. What a great history,something they do not teach in our schools! While so many other imperialistic Countries have slowed down or stop this practice, we are still gung ho and getting worse.
This is pure insanity.
@jongadel: Thanks for the feedback. You can find the date of each event by clicking the INFO tab under the video (far left side). Here you will find the partner, location, event date and speakers.
member. 
