Richard Nephew is an Adjunct Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He has spent much of his career in the U.S. government in various capacities. From 2022-2024, he was the inaugural U.S. Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption at the Department of State. He was also elected as the
Michael Eisenstadt is the Kahn Senior Fellow and director of The Washington Institute's Military and Security Studies Program.
Brief Analysis
What challenges must be addressed in negotiating a new nuclear agreement with Iran, or, failing that, planning a military campaign to degrade or destroy Tehran's nuclear weapons program? Watch an expert conversation exploring these and related questions.
Iran poses one of the Trump administration’s most pressing foreign policy challenges. While the president has expressed his preference for a diplomatic solution on the nuclear file and other issues, military action—Israeli and/or American—is on the table should a deal prove elusive. What challenges need to be addressed in negotiating a new agreement with Iran or, failing that, planning a military campaign to degrade or destroy its nuclear weapons program? How might Tehran respond to such an attack? And how might either scenario affect the Islamic Republic’s domestic politics and foreign policy?
To address these questions, The Washington Institute hosted a virtual Policy Forum with Richard Nephew, Holly Dagres, and Michael Eisenstadt, author of the just-published paper Attacking Iran’s Nuclear Program: The Complex Calculus of Preventive Action. The event will be moderated by Director of Research Dana Stroul.
Richard Nephew is an adjunct fellow with The Washington Institute. Previously, he served in multiple senior posts with the U.S. government, including deputy special envoy for Iran (2021), principal deputy coordinator for sanctions policy at the State Department (2013-15), and director for Iran at the National Security Council (2011-13).
Holly Dagres is the Libitzky Family Senior Fellow in the Institute’s Viterbi Program on Iran and U.S. Policy, and curator of the weekly newsletter The Iranist. During her previous tenure with the Atlantic Council, she led a working group for the bipartisan report The Future of U.S. Strategy Toward Iran: A Roadmap for the Next Administration.
Michael Eisenstadt is the Institute’s Kahn Senior Fellow and director of its Military and Security Studies Program. His previous publications include the recent study If Iran Gets the Bomb: Weapons, Force Posture, Strategy.
The Policy Forum series is made possible through the generosity of the Florence and Robert Kaufman Family.
