Iran's March to Nuclear Weapons, Dr Emanuele Ottolenghi

Hosted by: AIIA Victoria

The event will start on: Monday, 02 August 2010 5:30 PM

And will end on: Monday, 02 August 2010 7:00 PM

At Dyason House

124 Jolimont Road East , Melbourne Victoria

03 9654 7271     events.vic@aiia.asn.au

Posted by: vic   

Dr Emanuele Ottolenghi, Senior Fellow, Foundation for
Defence of Democracies, Washington, DC. 

Since Iran’s nuclear programme was exposed to the world in 2002, the international community has employed diplomacy and negotiation with Teheran to try to persuade the regime to be transparent about its activities and to be compliant with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.  Little progress has been made.  Since 2006 the United Nations has adopted four sanctions resolutions, albeit reluctantly and after long delays and talks on texts which invariably were tempered.  This, despite mounting evidence from the International Atomic Energy Agency of Iran’s systematic pursuit of a nuclear weapons capacity, has big implications.  Failure of diplomacy and continued reluctance to isolate Iran economically might open the path to a pre-emptive military strike by Israel and/or the United States – a risky proposition even by the admission of those who are in favour of such action.  But the alternative – a nuclear Iran – needs to be fully assessed in order to appreciate the costs and risks involved in the alternatives.

Dr Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies.  From 2006 to early this year he headed the Transatlantic Institute in Brussels.  He previously taught Israel studies at St. Antony's College, Oxford University.  Dr Ottolenghi obtained his PhD in political theory at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem after undergraduate studies in political science at the University of Bologna.

He has a column in the British 'Standpoint' magazine and writes a blog for ‘Commentary’ magazine.  Dr Ottolenghi's articles have appeared in many publications including 'Newsday', 'Commentary', the 'National Review Online', the 'Middle East Quarterly', the 'Jewish Chronicle', ‘The Guardian', ‘The Australian', the 'Daily Mirror', the 'Daily Star' and the 'Wall Street Journal', 'Die Welt', Rezpekt (Czech), 'Il Corriere del Ticino', 'L'Unità', 'Il Foglio' and 'Libero' (Italian).  He writes regularly for Italian newspapers such as 'Il Riformista' and 'Liberal'.  He specialises in Israeli issues, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Iran, terrorism and security, Italian foreign policy, the EU's Middle East policy and transatlantic relations.

Tickets payable at the door :

• Members                      $20
• Non-Members                $30
• Student Members            $10
• Student Non-Members    $15

If you plan to attend this function, please advise us at least 1 day before the event.
Snacks and refreshments will be served.