CISSM Director Nancy Gallagher sits down with leading journalist and political analyst, Negar Mortazavi, in our next Global Forum to unpack how the Iranian public is responding to the escalation in the conflict with U.S. and Israel and what the future may hold. They will examine justifications given by U.S. and Israeli officials for the most recent attack and likely repercussions from the death of Iran's former Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini. They will discuss the implications of CISSM's recently released survey of Iranian Public Opinion Soon After the Twelve-Day War. Finally, they will consider likely scenarios for Iran's future and the prospects for democracy, human rights, nonproliferation, regional security and peace.
About the Speakers
Negar Mortazavi, Journalist and Political Analyst on U.S.-Iran Foreign Policy
An award-winning journalist and commentator, Negar Mortazavi is the editor and host of the Iran Podcast and a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy (CIP), based in Washington DC. She has been covering Iranian and Middle Eastern affairs as well as US foreign policy towards the Middle East for over a decade.
Mortazavi is a frequent media commentator and has appeared on CNN, NBC, NPR, BBC, France24, Aljazeera and other global outlets. She has written for Foreign Policy magazine, Politico, The Intercept, The Independent and other publications, and is regularly invited to speak at panels and conferences around the world about Iranian affairs and US foreign policy.
Mortazavi has been featured in FORBES among 30 inspirational women who are breaking boundaries in work and life. She has been named by Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) among 40 young leaders shaping the present and future of US-Middle East relations, and among 40 Iranian-American young leaders who have made an enormous impact on their community and country. She was named a rising star in US foreign policy by New America Foundation, and by the Center For Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and in 2017 was named a Young Leader by Friends of Europe, a prominent European institution based in Brussels.
Mortazavi was previously a television anchor for Voice of America where she hosted a Persian talk show on current affairs and an English news segment on US elections. She was also a Washington Correspondent for Iran International television, and previously worked at the International Center For Journalists, the National Iranian American Council and the United Nations Development Programme headquarters in New York.
Mortazavi received her Master's degree from Brandeis University and her Bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts. She grew up in Iran and Germany, immigrated to the United States in 2002 and has been living in exile since 2009.
Nancy Gallagher, Director of the Center for International and Security Studies
In addition to her leadership of CISSM, Dr. Gallagher is a Research Professor in the School of Public Policy. Her current research includes a book project on Strategic Logics for Arms Control; initiatives to enhance cybersecurity; and strategies to reduce nuclear risks, enhance space security and govern emerging technologies.
Gallagher is the author of The Politics of Verification (1999) and the editor of Arms Control: New Approaches to Theory and Policy (1998). She has co-authored five monographs: The Desirability and Feasibility of Strategic Trade Controls on Emerging Technologies (2023); Minimizing the Negative Effects of Advances in Military-Relevant Space Capabilities on Strategic Stability (2023); Comprehensive Nuclear Material Accounting (2014); Reconsidering the Rules for Space Security (2008); and Controlling Dangerous Pathogens (2007). Since 2014, Gallagher and colleagues have surveyed Iranian public opinion on nuclear policy, domestic politics and regional security. She has also written numerous governmental reports, policy articles and op eds.
Gallagher won UMD's 2015 Research Communication Impact Award; the Outstanding Invention of 2016 award for her development, with Charles Harry, of a cybersecurity risk analysis framework. She also received the 2021 Provost's award for excellence in research by a professional track faculty member.
Gallagher served as the executive director of the Clinton administration's Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Task Force and worked with the Special Advisor to the President and the Secretary of State to build bipartisan support for ratification. Gallagher worked at the State Department, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and Wesleyan University.