On September 15, the Maxwell School will launch an annual workshop series focused on the United States and the World. The inaugural workshop examines the past, present, and future of Sino-American and U.S.-Iranian relations. The event was developed in conjunction with the State Department’s Office of the Historian and is co-sponsored by the Maxwell Dean’s Office, the Moynihan Institute, the Middle Eastern Studies Program, the History Department, and the International Relations Program. The program features Maxwell faculty and graduate students, representatives from the Office of the Historian, and distinguished guests. 

9:00-9:05am: Welcome

9:15am-11am: The United States and China: Toward Normalization

David Nickles, U.S. State Department, Office of the Historian, “The United States, China, and the Foreign Relations of the United States Series.” Terry Lautz, Visiting Professor, Syracuse University, "Normalizing U.S.-China Relations: Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object." Dimitar Gueorguiev, Assistant Professor, Political Science, “Authoritarian Resilience and the False Hope of Peaceful Evolution." Yingyi Ma, Associate Professor, Sociology, “The United States and China: In the Eyes of Chinese International Students.” Erik French, PhD Candidate, Political Science, “Pouring Oil on Troubled Waters: US Alliance Strategy and Sino-Japanese Territorial Disputes in the Post-Cold War Era.”

11:00 am-11:45 am: Roundtable Discussion

12:00-1pm: Keynote Address

Richard Immerman, Professor Emeritus, Temple University, History Department, former Asst. Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analytic Integrity and Standards, Office of the Director of National Intelligence

2:30-4:30 pm: The United States and Iran: Toward Confrontation

Malcolm Byrne, Deputy Director and Director of Research, National Security Archive, George Washington University, “When History Meets Politics: The Challenging Case of the 1953 Coup in Iran.” Ervand Abrahamian, Distinguished Professor of Iranian and Middle Eastern History and Politics, Baruch College, The City University of New York, “Why did Washington Refuse to Declassify the 1953 Coup Documents?" David Collier, Lecturer, Boston University-Washington, “An Event so Inevitable, Yet so Completely Unforeseen: The United States and the Iranian Revolution.” Adam Howard, Gen. Editor, U.S. State Department, Office of the Historian, “Building Security in the ‘Arc of Crisis’: The Carter Administration’s Approach to Southwest Asia and the Persian Gulf Region.” Pedram Maghsoud-Nia, PhD Candidate, Political Science, “The Rise of the Iranian Leviathan: US-Iranian Relations and the Evolution of the Post-Revolutionary State." Abolghasem Bayyenat, PhD Candidate, Political Science, “Explaining Iran's Nuclear Policy Shift, 2013-15.”

4:30-5:15 pm: Roundtable Discussion

The event will be live-streamed.

For more information, please contact Osamah Khalil at ofkhalil@maxwell.syr.edu.