{"id":62121,"date":"2025-10-22T15:02:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T19:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/?p=62121"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:27:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T19:27:48","slug":"student-reflection-mia-knezevic-ir-26-recaps-talk-on-iran-nuclear-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/2025\/10\/22\/student-reflection-mia-knezevic-ir-26-recaps-talk-on-iran-nuclear-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Reflection: Mia Kne\u017eevi\u0107 (IR \u201826) Recaps Talk on Iran Nuclear Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, October 9th, experts from three Boston-area universities were brought together for a panel discussion titled \u201cPutting the Iranian Nuclear Program in a Broader Context,\u201d hosted by Pardee Professor Sanne Verschuren as part of \u201cThe Global Security Initiative.” The panelists \u2014 Gary Samore, Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies and Professor of Practice of Politics at Brandeis University, Ali Kadviar, an Associate Professor of Sociology and International Studies at Boston College, Yasir Kuoti, a Political Science Ph.D. student at Boston University, and Sanne Verschuren, Assistant Professor of International Security at Boston University \u2014 all contributed unique perspectives to make for an interesting, engaging discussion moderated by Pardee School Dean Scott Taylor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary Samore began with a discussion about the evolution of Iran\u2019s nuclear program, sharing an analysis of Iran\u2019s nuclear strategy before and after the 12-day war (also known as the Iran-Israel war) that took place this past June. He emphasized that Iran\u2019s \u201cvery successful\u201d nuclear strategy over the past 20 years now lies \u201cin ruins.\u201d He discussed two potential strategies for Iran going forward \u2014 building nuclear weapons or negotiating another agreement \u2014 but also raised potential obstacles to both. Samore, who was <\/span>President Obama\u2019s White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and has extensive private and public sector experience, brought valuable expertise on nuclear strategy and non-proliferation to the panel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ali Kadivar, who studies protest movements and has experience as a participant-observer of the pro-democracy movement in Iran explained what Iran\u2019s nuclear situation might mean for the country and its people. He focused on the historical perspective by unpacking Iran\u2019s decades-long security issues, especially during World Wars I and II, the 1953 coup in Iran, and the Iraq War. Kadivar also discussed anti-American sentiment in Iran and how support for <\/span>nuclear weapons has likely increased among the Iranian people after the exchange between Iran and Israel in June.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yasir Kuoti then zoomed out from the discussion on Iran to include more regional actors, bringing in the viewpoints of the Gulf States and states that he classified as having \u201cno unified, functional authorities,\u201d such as Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon. Kuoti, who specializes in international relations and comparative politics with a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa, highlighted that the region is so divided that there is no one particular perception of Iran\u2019s nuclear program. Israel, however, does view Iran\u2019s nuclear program as an \u201cexistential and intolerable threat to its existence,\u201d according to Kuoti.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Mia Kne\u017eevi\u0107 (BA IR ’26)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, Sanne Verschuren discussed developments in the broader world of nuclear weapons. First, she argued that there is much more violence in the international system than ever before and that states are resorting more to tools of violence, which have rippling effects in the nuclear sphere. Then, she discussed the significant nuclear modernization happening in the world and how each of the nine nuclear-armed states continues to modernize their nuclear programs, adding new technologies as they emerge. Finally, she emphasized that there exists a \u201ccrippling understanding\u201d in the world of how the nuclear system works and what it is supposed to do, adding that arms control is becoming an increasing rarity. Verschuren\u2019s research focuses on how states fight war and why they construct novel weapon technologies, and she was thus able to bring a valuable perspective on general security policy and how it relates to the Iranian nuclear program. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mia <\/span>Kne\u017eevi\u0107<\/a> is majoring in International Relations, with minors in History and Russian, and is particularly interested in the Balkans, former Soviet states, human rights, and migration. Mia previously served as a U.S. State Department Critical Language Scholar in Kyrgyzstan and has interned with Need4Deed, a Berlin-based nonprofit supporting refugees, as well as with the Post-Conflict Research Center in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. On campus, Mia is the Senior Editor for the Russia & FSU Section of the International Relations Review and a member of the Women\u2019s Club Water Polo team. She looks forward to meeting new people and continuing to support the Pardee community as a Dean\u2019s Ambassador. In the future, Mia hopes to work in the nonprofit sector or at an international organization, advocating for refugee protection.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pardee student Mia Kne\u017eevi\u0107 recaps the recent Global Security Initiative panel discussion about Iran’s nuclear program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22241,"featured_media":59379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8411,8416],"tags":[13095,13094,11944,1819,8392,10684,12162,11964,8662,13096],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62121"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62145,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62121\/revisions\/62145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}