Distinguished Lecturers Enlighten Trinity Community

In these past two weeks, Trinity students and staffs have heard from two distinguished personalities: Former State Secretary Condolezza Rice and a Middle East Historian Rashid Khalidi. I liked both of them and even though Khalidi is less popular compared to star-studded Rice, he impressed me more.

They talked about a lot of good stuff. But there was one topic that both of them touched upon and coincidentally, it is a hot political issue (a hot potato) these days for discussion, namely Iran Nuclear Enrichment Program. It was interesting to see both of them taking on same issue from two entirely different perspectives. Condolezza Rice came from a US centered perspective and saw Iran as an evil, a threat to US security and thus its nuclear program had to be contained/abandoned at the earliest possible through trade sanctions, international pressure and whatever is available.

Rashid Khalidi on the other hand, seemed to exude a deeper and clearer understanding of the situation. He pointed out the need for Iran to start this nuclear program after feeling insecure from two of its nuke possessing neighbors- Israel and Pakistan. He said that United States turns a blind eye to the fact that Israel and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons and did virtually nothing to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran, discernibly has some tensions with Israel, a Jewish state and Pakistan, a predominantly Sunni Muslim nation. These facts cannot be ignored while trying to find a solution.

After hearing about these two different perspectives, I gained a better understanding of this issue. In addition, my political science professor is from Iran and she opened another discussion in class today on this topic. The discussion provided yet another dimension to my understanding of Iran's nuclear program. After coming to a liberal arts institution you realize that reading what's on popular news media is simply not enough. They never tell you the inside story. You have to learn it from several other sources. And institutions like Trinity with diverse population are perfect places for that.


Note: I wrote this blog as part of Trinity's Official Student Blogger Program.