Uzair talks to Dr. Vali Nasr about ongoing developments in the Middle East, where tensions between Iran and Gulf countries, especially the UAE and Saudi Arabia, continue to escalate. This podcast also touches on how the US should engage with the region and the ways in which Pakistan ought to navigate this quagmire.

Vali Nasr is the Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center. He served as the eighth Dean of Johns Hopkins SAIS between 2012 and 2019 and served as Senior Advisor to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke between 2009 and 2011.

Nasr is the author of The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat; Forces of Fortune: The Rise of a New Middle Class and How it Will Change Our World; The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam will Shape the Future; Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty; Islamic Leviathan, Islam and the Making of State Power; Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism; and Vanguard of Islamic Revolution: Jama’at-i Islami of Pakistan; and numerous articles in scholarly journals.

He has advised senior American policymakers, world leaders, and businesses, including the President, Secretary of State, senior members of the Congress, and presidential campaigns. He has written for New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, among others.

Reading Recommendations:

The Shia Revival – www.amazon.com/dp/B000U0O9FC/ref…oding=UTF8&btkr=1

The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat – www.amazon.com/Dispensable-Natio…Y4I9EM/ref=sr_1_1?

All Against All – www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/midd…l-against-all

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Introduction

2:00 What’s going on in the Middle East?

7:35 Iran’s ascendancy in the region

18:55 How should America navigate this?

27:35 Impact on Pakistan

38:30 Economics and geopolitics

43:45 Impact of religious changes in Saudi

49:20 Where are things headed?