NSI hosted an event diving into the geopolitical, economic, and strategic implications of the growing partnership between Russia and Iran, which has led to increased cooperation, including military coordination, such as military transfers and defense technology exchanges, economic partnership, to even Russia providing cover for Iranian violations of international law in multilateral institutions.

This event explored the motivations and goals driving Russia and Iran to grow closer, how the ongoing war in Ukraine and in the Middle East impacts their partnership, and the challenges – as well as opportunities – that their relationship presents for U.S. interests in the region.

Panelists:

• Dr. Mark Katz – Professor Emeritus of Government and Politics, George Mason University, Schar School of Policy and Government
• Martha Miller – Senior Fellow, National Security Institute
• Dr. Ray Takeyh – Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
• Behnam Ben Taleblu – Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Moderator:

• Andrew Borene – Former Senior Officer, Office of the Director of National Intelligence

 

Speaker Bios

Dr. Mark Katz 

Mark N. Katz is a professor emeritus of government and politics at George Mason University. He is the author of The Third World in Soviet Military Thought (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), Russia and Arabia: Soviet Foreign Policy toward the Arabian Peninsula (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), Gorbachev’s Military Policy in the Third World (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1989), Revolutions and Revolutionary Waves (St. Martin’s Press, 1997), Reflections on Revolutions (St. Martin’s Press, 1999), and Leaving without Losing: The War on Terror after Iraq and Afghanistan (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012).

During 2017, Katz was a visiting scholar first at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (January-March) and at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki (April-September). During 2018, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London (January-March) and the Sir William Luce Fellow at Durham University in the U.K. (April-June). In February 2019, he was appointed a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Katz earned a BA in international relations from the University of California at Riverside in 1976, a MA in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in 1978, and a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982.

 

Martha Miller

Martha Miller is a Washington-based policy consultant and analyst focusing on U.S. foreign policy, political freedom, and U.S.-Germany relations.

Martha served as a Special Assistant to President George W. Bush, advising him on appointments to prominent national security and diplomatic positions, presidential delegations, international assemblies, and government advisory board and commission appointments.

Prior to the White House, Martha served five years on Capitol Hill on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as a Legislative Assistant to Senator Gordon Smith.  She later served in the State Department’s Bureau for Political-Military Affairs, and at the International Republican Institute (IRI).

Prior to her government service, Martha worked in the Bundestag, Amerika Haus (Heidelberg), and the U.S. Embassy Office Berlin.  She studied at l’Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier III in France.  She speaks English, French and German.

Martha earned a Bachelor of Arts, with distinction, in French language and literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

Dr. Ray Takeyh

Ray Takeyh is a Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His area of specialization are Iran, U.S. foreign policy, and modern Middle East.

Takeyh is, most recently, the author of The Last Shah: America, Iran and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty. He is the coauthor of The Pragmatic Superpower: Winning the Cold War in the Middle East and Revolution & Aftermath: Forging a New Strategy toward Iran. He is author of three previous books, Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs, Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic, and The Origins of the Eisenhower Doctrine: The US, Britain and Nasser’s Egypt, 1952-1957. He has written more than three hundred articles and opinion pieces in many news outlets including Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Foreign Affairs. Takeyh has testified more than twenty times in various Congressional committees.

Prior to joining CFR he has served as a senior advisor on Iran at the State Department, fellow at the Yale University, Washington Institute of Near East Policy and Middle East Center at University of California, Berkeley. Takeyh has a doctorate in modern history from Oxford University.

 

Behnam Ben Taleblu

Behnam Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow at FDD where he focuses on Iranian security and political issues. For over a decade, Behnam has supported FDD’s Iran work in various capacities, including as a research fellow and senior Iran analyst. Prior to his time at FDD, Behnam worked on non-proliferation issues at an arms control think-tank in Washington. Leveraging his subject-matter expertise and native Persian-language skills, Behnam closely tracks a wide range of Iran-related functional and regional topics including nuclear non-proliferation, ballistic missiles and drones, sanctions, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies, the foreign and security policy of the Islamic Republic, and internal Iranian politics. Frequently called upon to brief journalists, congressional staff, diplomatic, military, academic, and policy audiences in Washington, across the U.S., and around the world, Behnam has testified before the U.S. Congress and Canadian Parliament and provided oral and written evidence to the UK House of Commons’s Foreign Affairs Committee. Behnam is also a member of the Anti-Defamation League’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities.

His analysis has been quoted in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Fox News, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Politico, and Axios, among others. Additionally, he has contributed to or coauthored articles for The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, Fox News, The Hill, War on the Rocks, and The National Interest. Behnam has appeared on a variety of broadcast programs, including PBS Newshour, BBC News, Fox News, CBS News, C-SPAN, France 24, Deutsche Welle, and Defense News. Behnam earned his MA with Honors in International Relations from The University of Chicago, and his BA in International Affairs and Middle East Studies from The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

 

Andrew Borene

Andrew Borene is the London-based Executive Director for Flashpoint.io, an intelligence firm supporting national security and critical infrastructure teams in governments and multinational enterprises in more than 50 countries.

He is a former senior officer in the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) where he served as Group Chief of an interagency team responsible for policy and planning of counterterrorism operations in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and Africa, on behalf of The White House National Security Council. He also has led Fortune 500 business divisions and high-risk/high-payoff initiatives for companies including IBM, Symantec, and LexisNexis.

A board member, a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and a licensed attorney with 25 years of professional experience in the national security, intelligence, and cybersecurity domains — Andrew has led and leveraged international public-private partnerships, open-source intelligence (OSINT), cyber threat intelligence (CTI), and closed intelligence to achieve strategic and operational goals for global enterprises.

He is also a Senior Fellow at the George Mason University Law School’s National Security Institute (NSI), where he shares his insights and expertise on national security and cybersecurity law and policy. Andrew serves on the Editorial Board of the European Marshall Center’s Partnership for Peace journal, “Connections”, linking more than 800 defense academies and security studies institutes. He is also an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the UK’s Royal Institute of International Affairs.

He is a U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran. In addition to various military awards, his civilian recognition includes the FBI Director’s Award and the ODNI Exceptional Achievement Award.