Date
August 4, 2015
Time
12:30pm – 1:30pm
Location
ASP Conference Facilities, 7th Floor West Tower, 1100 New York Ave NW, Washington DC
The international community and Iran have just concluded two years of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. After a series of set-backs, continued negotiations, and international pressure on all sides, an Iranian Nuclear Deal was finally reached.
This event will be an opportunity to push past the politics and understand the components and implications of The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Join the American Security Project as we host this lunch event and discuss the important implications this deal has for the United States, its partners, and Iran.
Lunch refreshments will be served from 12:00pm – 12:30pm.
Please arrive by 12:00pm for registration.
The event will be begin promptly at 12:30pm.
About the Speakers:
BGen. Stephen A. Cheney, USMC (Ret).
Stephen Cheney is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Security Project (ASP) and a member of the Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.
He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has over 30 years experience as a Marine. His career included a wide variety of command and staff positions with the operating forces and the supporting establishment. Gen. Cheney’s primary specialty was artillery, but he focused extensively on entry-level training, commanding at every echelon at both Marine Corps Recruit Depots, to include being the Commanding General at Parris Island. He served several years in Japan and has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and Asia.
Other selected highlights of Gen. Cheney’s military career include tours as Deputy Executive Secretary to Defense Secretaries Cheney and Aspin; ground plans officer for Drug Enforcement Policy in the Pentagon; liaison to the Congressional Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces; and Inspector General of the Marine Corps.
Following retirement from the Marines, Gen. Cheney became the Chief Operating Officer for Business Executives for National Security (BENS), in Washington, D.C., and most recently was President/CEO of the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas.
Gen. Cheney is a graduate of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, the National War College, and the University of Southern California. He was a military fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, where he is a member. Additionally, he is also a member of the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board.
Adm. William J. Fallon, USN (Ret.)
Admiral William J. Fallon retired from the U.S. Navy after a distinguished 40 year career of military and strategic leadership. He has led U.S. and Allied forces in eight separate commands and played a leadership role in military and diplomatic matters at the highest levels of the U.S. government.
As head of U.S. Central Command, Admiral Fallon directed all U.S. military operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and Horn of Africa, focusing on combat efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He led the U.S. Pacific Command for two years, directing political-military activities in the Asia-Pacific region. His achievements include a resumption of military engagement with China, new outreach to India, a new agreement on a strategic framework with Japan, and humanitarian assistance to the victims of the 2004 Tsunami in SE Asia. He also served as Presidential Envoy to Japan, handling bi-lateral relations after the collision of a U.S. submarine and a Japanese fishing vessel.
On September 11, 2001, Admiral Fallon was serving in the Pentagon as Vice Chief of the Navy. He personally directed the recovery of the Navy staff in the wake of the attack and led in the planning of the retaliatory attacks on Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. He later commanded the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and U.S. Fleet Forces Command, with responsibility for the readiness of U.S. Naval forces worldwide.
Admiral Fallon began his Navy career as a combat aviator flying from an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War and participated in many vital U.S. military operations during the Cold War. He led a Carrier Air Wing in combat during the Gulf War of 1991, and commanded a Navy Battle Group and the U.S. 6th Fleet Battle Force during NATO military operations in Bosnia.
Dr. Trita Parsi
Trita Parsi is an award winning author and the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. He is the founder and president of the National Iranian American Council and an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign politics, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He is the author of Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States (Yale University Press 2007), for which he conducted more than 130 interviews with senior Israeli, Iranian and American decision-makers. Treacherous Alliance is the silver medal winner of the 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations.
Parsi’s latest book A Single Roll of the Dice – Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran (Yale University Press) was released early 2012 and was selected by Foreign Affairs journal as the Best Book of 2012 on the Middle East. He interviewed 70 high-ranking officials from the U.S., Iran, Europe, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Brazil—including the top American and Iranian negotiators—for this book. Parsi uncovers the previously unknown story of American and Iranian negotiations during Obama’s early years as president, the calculations behind the two nations’ dealings, and the real reasons for their current stalemate.
Parsi was born in Iran but moved with his family at the age of four to Sweden in order to escape political repression in Iran. His father was an outspoken academic and non-Muslim who was jailed by the Shah and then by the Ayatollah. He moved to the United States as an adult and studied foreign policy at Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies where he received his Ph.D.
He founded NIAC to provide a non-partisan, non-profit organization through which Iranian-Americans could participate in American civic life. NIAC is a vocal proponent of dialogue and engagement between the US and Iran, which Parsi consistently has argued would enhance our national security by helping to stabilize the Middle East and bolster the moderates in Iran.
Parsi has followed Middle East politics through work in the field and extensive experience on Capitol Hill and at the United Nations. He is frequently consulted by Western and Asian governments on foreign policy matters. Parsi has worked for the Swedish Permanent Mission to the UN, where he served in the Security Council, handling the affairs of Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan and Western Sahara, and in the General Assembly’s Third Committee, addressing human rights in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Iraq.
Laura Rozen
Laura Rozen writes the Back Channel news-blog for Al-Monitor. She previously served as senior foreign policy reporter for Politico and Yahoo News, and wrote the “Cable” blog for Foreign Policy magazine. She is based in Washington, D.C. You can follow her on Twitter at @lrozen
Rozen has reported from the Balkans, Russia and Turkey and earned a masters degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School. Her reporting has also been published by the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, the Forward, the Tablet, National Journal, Mother Jones, the American Prospect and the Washington Monthly. She has appeared as a guest on CNN, NPR, the BBC, MSNBC and other public affairs programs. She is also a columnist for World Politics Review.
Resources:
Panel Recap: Can the IAEA Effectively Verify the Iran Nuclear Agreement?
The Iran Deal: Good for U.S. National Security
What to Expect From The Iran Nuclear Talks
ABOUT THE AMERICAN SECURITY PROJECT
The American Security Project is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy and research organization dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of a range of national security issues, promoting debate about the appropriate use of American power, and cultivating strategic responses to 21st century challenges. For more information, visit www.americansecurityproject.org.
