Peace picks, November 25-29

With Thanksgiving this week, Washington is pretty quiet. Still a couple peace and conflict events to check out:

1. Italy, the Cold War, and the Nuclear Dilemma: The Struggle over the NPT

November 25, 2013 // 4:00pm — 5:30pm // Wilson Center

Washington History Seminar
Historical Perspectives on International and National Affairs

Italy, the Cold War, and the Nuclear Dilemma:
The Struggle over the NPT

Leopoldo Nuti
UNIVERSITY OF ROMA TRE

Why do nuclear weapons matter? Italy‘s military nuclear policy throughout the Cold War was an attempt to achieve a position of parity with the major European powers. The Non-Proliferation Treaty, however, challenged this basic goal, and both the signature and the ratification of the treaty became two of the most controversial choices that postwar Italy had to face.

Leopoldo Nuti is Director of the Machiavelli Center for Cold War Studies and professor of history of international relations and coordinator of the international studies section of the doctoral school in political science at the University of Roma Tre.  He is the Co-Director of the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project. Nuti has been a Fulbright student, NATO Research Fellow, Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Research Fellow at the CSIA, Harvard University, Research Fellow for the Nuclear History Program, Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and Visiting Professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris. He has published extensively in Italian, English, and French on U.S.-Italian relations and Italian foreign and security policy. His latest book is a history of nuclear weapons in Italy during the Cold War, La sfida nucleare. La politica estera italiana e le armi nucleari, 1945-1991.

Report from the Field: David Nickles, US Department of State Office of the Historian

Monday November 25, 2013
4:00 p.m. 
Woodrow Wilson Center, 6th Floor Moynihan Board Room
Ronald Reagan Building, Federal Triangle Metro Stop

Reservations requested because of limited seating:
mbarber@historians.org or 202-450-3209

The seminar is sponsored jointly by the National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Wilson Center. It meets weekly during the academic year. See www.nationalhistorycenter.org for the schedule, speakers, topics, and dates as well as webcasts and podcasts. The seminar thanks the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations for its support.

2. Nuclear Talks with Iran: Potential Pitfalls and Prospects for Success

Tuesday, Nov 26, 2013 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Lehrman Auditorium, Heritage Foundation

The rise to power of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has boosted expectations that the decade-long standoff over Iran’s nuclear weapons program soon will be resolved through a diplomatic agreement. How realistic are these expectations? What is the meaning of the deadlocked talks at Geneva? What negotiating pitfalls must be avoided to construct the framework of an acceptable agreement? What is the role of international sanctions in pressuring Iran and under what circumstances should Washington consider easing sanctions? Join us as the speakers address these and other questions.

Patrick Clawson
Director of Research, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Fred Fleitz 
Chief Analyst of the Langley Intelligence Group Network and former Senior Analyst with the CIA, DIA and House Intelligence Committee

James Phillips 
Senior Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs, The Heritage Foundation

Director, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies

RSVP: http://www.heritage.org/events/2013/11/nuclear-talks-with-iran