From 22 – 23 June 2021, the Near East South Asia (NESA) Center for Strategic Studies, along with United States Central Command (CENTCOM), conducted a conference titled “State-of-Play in and Around Iran” that explored Iran’s domestic issues and challenges. The seminar had several panels focusing on; economy and military spending, political factions in Iran, defense security policy, regional security challenges and global powers competition (Russia and China, Europe and the United States), and wrapping up with the way forward. NESA’s Professors, Dr. Richard Russell and Dr. Gawdat Bahgat facilitated the 2-day digital conference that brought together 16 distinguished speakers from multiple academic and research backgrounds. The conference had 52 national and international participants.
![](https://nesa-center.org/dev/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IranConference.jpg)
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