USF World News

The Center for Strategic & Diplomatic Studies Hosts Debate on President Trump's Iran Policy

TAMPA, Fla. (November 9, 2018) - The Center for Strategic & Diplomatic Studies (CSDS) and Executive Director Dr. Mohsen Milani hosted Barbara Slavin and Michael Singh for a debate on US Policy on Iran. With the latest sanctions recently leveled on Iran, this debate was especially relevant in today’s world.

The participants discussed how effective the US sanctions are at achieving their goals and if they will create a humanitarian crisis for innocent civilians. The free event was held at the Patel Center for Global Solutions on the USF Tampa campus. Co-sponsors included USF World and the Atlantic Council.

Michael Singh was senior director for Middle East Affairs at the White House from 2007-2008, and a director on the NSC staff from 2005-2007. Earlier, he served as special assistant to Secretaries of State Powell and Rice, and at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv. He co-chaired Mitt Romney’s State Department transition team in 2012, and served as Middle East advisor to the Romney campaign. His writings have appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, International Security, and elsewhere, and he has appeared as a commentator on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and other outlets.

Mr. Singh earned his bachelor’s degree in economics summa cum laude from Princeton University and an MBA with high distinction (Baker Scholar) from Harvard Business School. Currently, Mr. Singh is the managing director at The Washington Institute.

Barbara Slavin is the director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council and a columnist for AI-Monitor.com, a website devoted to news from and about the Middle East. The Author of Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation (2007), she is a regular commentator on U.S. foreign policy and Iran on NPR, PBS, and C-SPAN.

A career journalist, Slavin previously served as assistant managing editor for world and national security of the Washington Times, senior diplomatic reporter for USA TODAY, Cairo correspondent for the Economist, and as an editor at the New York Times Week in Review. She has covered such key foreign policy issues as the US-led war on terrorism, policy toward “rogue” states, the Iran-Iraq war, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. She has traveled to Iran nine times. Slavin also served as a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where she wrote Bitter Friends, and as a senior fellow at the US Institute of Peace, where she researched and wrote the report Mullahs, Money and Militias: How Iran Exerts Its Influence in the Middle East.

Milani is an internationally recognized scholar, and was a research fellow at Harvard University, Oxford University, and the Foscari University in Venice, Italy. He has authored more than 80 publications in top peer-reviewed academic and respected journals. Under his guidance, the USF Center for Strategic & Diplomatic studies has become an international hub for research and discourse regarding serious security issues facing the world. In addition to hosting visits from renowned diplomats and journalists, Dr. Milani hosts in-depth, ongoing “conversations” on an array of topics, including the debate that brings Barbara Slavin and Michael Singh to USF.

 

 

*** The University of South Florida, established in 1956 and located in Tampa, is a high-impact, global research university dedicated to student success. The USF System includes three, separately accredited institutions: USF; USF St. Petersburg; and USF Sarasota-Manatee. Serving more than 49,000 students, the USF System has an annual budget of $1.6 billion and an annual economic impact of $4.4 billion. USF is ranked in the Top 30 nationally for research expenditures among public universities, according to the National Science Foundation. In 2016, the Florida Legislature designated USF as "Emerging Preeminent," placing USF in an elite category among the state's 12 public universities. USF is a member of the American Athletic Conference.