The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran are each pursuing a different vision for the future of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia wishes to develop and diversify its economy to manage the challenges of the energy transition and to lessen its dependence on oil revenue. The Kingdom labels this effort Vision 2030. By contrast, Iran mostly seeks to spread its revolutionary ideology of “resistance” with the aim of ending the influence and hegemony of the United States over the region as well as the destruction of the State of Israel. This can be labeled Vision 1979, after the year of the Iranian revolution that toppled the pro-Western monarchy. Haykel’s lecture will detail these different visions and the effects of the policies pursued by the governments in Riyadh and Tehran on the geopolitics of the Middle East and on their own respective societies.
This event is open and free to the community. Parking is free and light refreshments will be provided.
About the Speaker
Bernard Haykel
Bernard Haykel is a scholar of the Arabian Peninsula, focusing on the politics, economics and history of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) and Yemen. He is professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University where he teaches courses on energy, history and politics. Haykel is the author of “Revival and Reform in Islam” and editor of “Saudi Arabia in Transition,” both published by Cambridge University Press. His next book titled “The Realm: MBS and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia” will be published in 2025 by Penguin Press. This is about the modern political history of the Kingdom. Haykel is also considered an authority on Islamist political movements and Islamic law and is the author of numerous articles on these and other related topics. He has supervised over 10 PhD dissertations that deal with Arabian politics and history and has received several prominent awards, such as the Prize Fellowship at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, the Carnegie Corporation and Guggenheim fellowships and the Old Dominion Professorship at Princeton. Professor Haykel appears frequently in print and broadcast media. These include interviews and articles in the Wall Street Journal, PBS, NPR, the New York Times, Project Syndicate, Al Arabia, Al Jazeera, The Caravan, the Indian Express and the BBC among others.
