About this episode

Kian Tajbakhsh discusses his experiences as a political prisoner in Iran and the complexities of Iranian politics and U.S.-Iran relations.

Was the MOU a good idea? Noam says yes, the Professor says no. The Table is joined by Kian Tajbakhsh. They discuss his years as a political prisoner in Iran, the psychology of the Iranian regime, why he believes Iran's leaders genuinely seek Israel's destruction and what the West continues to misunderstand about the Middle East. He also weighs in on Trump, the latest U.S.-Iran developments and the future of the region. Kian Tajbakhsh is Visiting Professor of International Relations at NYU and Fellow at Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought. An Iranian-American scholar of Middle East geopolitics and Iranian politics, he previously worked as a democracy and human rights advocate inside Iran. He spent nearly 13 months in Tehran’s Evin Prison, including 8 months in solitary confinement in a high-security IRGC wing, followed by 6 years under house arrest as a political prisoner, before being released as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. He is the author of Creating Local Democracy in Iran (Cambridge University Press 2022). His essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Project Syndicate, and his analysis has been featured on NBC, CNN…

People in this episode

Host: Noam

Guest: Kian Tajbakhsh

Topics covered

• Iran politics
• Middle East geopolitics
• U.S.-Iran relations
• political imprisonment
• democracy and human rights

Keywords

• Iran
• Kian Tajbakhsh
• political prisoner
• Middle East
• U.S.-Iran relations
• democracy
• human rights
• geopolitics
• Israel

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NYU, Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Project Syndicate, NBC, CNN, BBC, CBC

Books & works: Creating Local Democracy in Iran

Places: Iran, Israel, Tehran

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