Hanging in the Balance: Europe, the United States, and the Iran Nuclear Deal

The U.S. Secretary of State and the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement indicating that they are willing to hold direct talks with Tehran over how to bring the United States and Iran into compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (or JCPOA, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal) – and then strengthen the agreement and address broader security concerns.

For the United States, this is a major step toward restoring the Iran nuclear deal – which was abandoned by the Trump administration – but the clock is ticking. Tehran may only be months away from amassing enough fissile material to build an atomic bomb. Join us for a virtual discussion with Iran expert Dr. Cornelius Adebahr and nuclear proliferation expert Kelsey Davenport about the U.S., Europe, and Iran at this critical juncture.

Dr. Cornelius Adebahr is a Nonresident Fellow at Carnegie Europe. His research focuses on foreign and security policy, in particular regarding Iran and the Persian Gulf, on European and transatlantic affairs, and on citizens’ engagement. He has run his own political consultancy in Berlin since 2000. Among his clients are government institutions and foundations as well as not-for-profit associations and companies. In addition, he is an Associate Fellow at the Research Institute of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), a Fellow at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, and a member of Team Europe, an experts’ network of the European Commission in Brussels.

Since 2005, Dr. Adebahr has taught at various international universities, including the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy in Erfurt, Tehran University in Iran, and the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the author of Europe and Iran: The Nuclear Deal and Beyond (Routledge 2017) and Learning and Change in European Foreign Policy: The Case of the EU Special Representatives (Nomos 2009). He is a frequent commentator for major German and international print, radio, and television media outlets, including the BBC, NPR, and POLITICO.

Kelsey Davenport is the Director for Nonproliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association, where she focuses on the nuclear and missile programs in Iran, North Korea, India, and Pakistan and on international efforts to prevent proliferation and nuclear terrorism. She also reports on developments in these areas for Arms Control Today and runs the Arms Control Association’s project assessing the effectiveness of multilateral voluntary initiatives that contribute to nonproliferation efforts.

She is the lead author of the P4+1 and Iran Nuclear Deal Alert newsletter, which assesses developments related to the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, and the North Korea Denuclearization Digest, which tracks efforts to negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. Ms. Davenport is also the co-author of a series of seven reports assessing the impact of the Nuclear Security Summits on efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism. She joined the Arms Control Association in August 2011 as a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow.

Ms. Davenport has been quoted in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, Reuters, Christian Science Monitor, Vox, and The Guardian and has provided commentary on NPR, CBC, CNN, ABC, MSNBC, Fox News, al-Jazeera, and C-Span. She has published op-eds in various outlets, including TIME, Reuters, CNN, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Defense One.