Iran expert to address U.S. policy toward Asia and Persian Gulf

Professor Flynt Leverett, whose distinguished government career has included positions with the CIA, the State Department and most recently as the senior director for Middle East affairs with the National Security Council, will discuss the changing nature of U.S. foreign policy strategy on April 3. His presentation “Energy, Economics, and the Lost Art of Grand Strategy: American Policy Toward the Persian Gulf and Rising Asia in the 21st Century" is open to the public.

Leverett is a proponent of the United States “coming to terms” with Iran, as he explained in this recent interview. He advocates that the United States treat the Islamic Republic of Iran as a legitimate government with legitimate international interests, much like the United States did with China in the 1970s. “We are not going to be able to browbeat them or sanction them or even bomb them into surrender,” Leverett said. His new book, Going to Tehran: Why the United States Must Come to Terms with the Islamic Republic, will be published in 2012.

Leverett, a faculty member in the Penn State School of International Affairs, co-authors The Race for Iran, a blog dedicated to Iran and its geopolitics, with Hillary Mann Leverett. He is a frequent guest in national media and has appeared on Bloomberg/PBS's Charlie Rose, BBC's Doha Debates, C-Span's Washington Journal, Al Jazeera (Arabic and English), NHK's Close Up Gendai, NPR, and PBS's Frontline and NewsHour, as well as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

This event will begin at 6:00 P.M. in the Apfelbaum Courtroom/Auditorium in Lewis Katz Hall, 333 W. South St., Carlisle, Pa., with a reception to follow. The presentation will be simulcast to Lewis Katz Building in University Park and webcast live.