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This three-day, international conference, which developed from conversations about regional nonproliferation policy, takes a wide view of Nuclear Issues in the Middle East and North Africa. It examines nuclear energy alongside nuclear weapons, and investigates the conceptual and material processes that enforce this divide. It broadens the regional scope to connect the Maghreb, the Levant, and further East, while also expanding the disciplinary purview to consider possible futures and trace historical roots. It explores ongoing changes in great power attitudes toward the region and the role of nuclear technologies in these shifts.

In late February, Iran rejected an offer from the European Union to hold direct nuclear talks with the U.S.—part of the Biden administration’s goal to restore diplomatic relations and perhaps even revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known in common parlance as the Iran Nuclear Deal. But, at the time, with no guarantee about U.S. sanctions relief, any hope for negotiations stalled.

Every year, military airstrikes in conflict zones like Iraq, Syria, and Libya result in thousands of civilian deaths and displacement. To shed light on the impact that civilians face in these conflict zones, the Council is hosting a discussion with the Director of Airwars, a non-profit transparency organization working to track, assess, and archive military actions and related civilian harm claims in conflict zones.