As the conflict surrounding Iran continues to evolve, its effects are no longer confined to a single battlefield. What is emerging instead is a distributed conflict environment in which Iran’s posture is expressed across multiple theaters, from direct confrontation to indirect projection through regional actors.
This discussion will examine the current trajectory of Iran, including the resilience of the regime, its strategic choices under pressure, and the broader implications for regional stability. Particular attention will be given to how these dynamics extend beyond Iran itself, including the role of actors such as the Houthis in Yemen, whose actions have brought the conflict into critical global domains such as the Red Sea and international shipping routes.
By bringing together perspectives on Iran’s internal direction and its external reach, the panel will explore how a localized conflict becomes regionalized and increasingly internationalized, and what risks this poses in the period ahead.
Speakers
Sara Bazoobandi
Sara Bazoobandi is a visiting scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute. She is also a non-resident researcher at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University and the Italian Institute for International Political Studies in Milan. She was previously a Marie Curie fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, a senior lecturer in international political economy at Regent’s University London, and a visiting scholar at the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore. Bazoobandi has served as an economic analyst for various international corporate organizations, policy advisory institutions, and think tanks, including Nomura International.
Between 2021 and 2024, she served as principal investigator for a European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions project examining Iran’s economic diversification, “look East” strategy, and resilience mechanisms. Her prior research focused on military-industrial complexes in Iran and China, particularly examining the rise of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Iran’s political and economic systems. She also contributed to a Euromesco-funded project examining the intersection of geopolitics, economic digitalization, and digital sovereignty in the Middle East and North Africa region, with a focus on technological governance.
Her current research focuses on autocratic application of artificial intelligence, AI governance, cybersecurity, and cyber-enabled repression and influence operations. As part of a German Institute for Global and Area Studies research group, she contributed to a Digital Transformation Lab project funded by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office, focusing on digital diplomacy and statecraft in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, particularly China-GCC technological collaboration and emerging defense technologies in the Middle East.
Thomas Juneau
Thomas Juneau is a professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. His research focuses on the Middle East (mostly on Iran and Yemen), the role of intelligence in national security and foreign policy-making, and Canadian foreign and defence policy. From 2003 until 2014, he worked with Canada’s Department of National Defence, mostly as a policy analyst covering the Middle East. He is also an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House and a non-resident fellow with the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies.
Moderator: Fatima Abo Alasrar
Senior Policy Analyst·WCYS
Founder and Writer at The Ideology Machine
Fatima Abo Alasrar is a Senior Policy Analyst at WCYS, Founder and Author of TheIdeologyMachine.com. Alasrar was a senior analyst at the Arabia Foundation in Washington, DC; the MENA director for Cure Violence; a research associate at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington; a Mason Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government; and an international policy fellow at the Open Society Foundation. From 2006 – 2012, she worked as an advisor for the Embassy of Yemen in Washington, DC. Earlier in her career, Alasrar served as a program officer for the Department for International Development in Yemen. Alasrar holds an MA in Public Administration from Harvard University, an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University, and a BS in Architectural Engineering from Sanaa University in Yemen.
