Why does Iran behave the way it does—and what does the West still misunderstand?

Join us for a compelling conversation between Vali Nasr, one of the most influential voices on Middle East geopolitics, and Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, as they unpack Nasr’s provocative new book, Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History.

In this landmark work, Nasr dismantles the myth of Iran as an irrational, ideologically driven state. Instead, he traces a coldly pragmatic strategy shaped by war, isolation, and existential fear. Drawing on rare interviews with Iranian insiders, Nasr reveals how Tehran’s foreign policy—its pursuit of nuclear capability, its forward defense, its defiance of U.S. power—is animated not by dogma but by the logic of survival and the scars of history.