Upcoming Event

Speaker Bios:

Dr. Lina Khatib (Author)

Associate Fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House; Visiting Scholar, Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative

Dr. Lina Khatib is an associate fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House and visiting scholar with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Previously, she was director of the SOAS Middle East Institute and Professor of Practice at the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS University of London. Prior to that, she served as director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House and director of the Carnegie Middle East Center at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She also co-founded and led the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law and was a senior associate at the Arab Reform Initiative. She has published several books and is a frequent writer and commentator on current affairs in the Middle East.

Professor David Des Roches (Moderator)

Professor, Thayer Marshall Institute; Senior Non-Resident Fellow, Gulf International Forum

David Des Roches is a Professor at the Thayer Marshall Institute and a Senior Non-Resident Fellow with Gulf International Forum. He is formerly an Associate Professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Security Studies. Prior to this, he was the Defense Department director responsible for policy concerning Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Prior to this assignment, he has served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, as senior country director for Pakistan, as NATO operations director, and as deputy director for peacekeeping. His first job in government was as a special assistant for strategy and later as the international law enforcement analyst in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He graduated from the United States Military Academy and obtained advanced degrees in Arab Politics from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies, in War Studies from Kings College London, and Strategic Studies from the US Army War College. He has also attended the Federal Executive Institute, the German Staff College’s Higher Officer Seminar, the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School, and the US Army Command and General Staff College.

Report Description: 

For decades, Iran pursued a strategy of “exporting the revolution” through the sponsorship of armed non-state actors across the Middle East. Framed as an “axis of resistance” against Israel and the United States, this network enabled Tehran to project influence across Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Gaza while limiting the risk of direct Iranian confrontation. This paper argues that the model has entered a phase of structural degradation. The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, together with the regional fallout that followed, accelerated the military, financial, and political weakening of Iran’s proxy architecture, contributing to a broader shift in the regional balance of power.