The Great Britain – Russia Society invites you to their annual Daniel Salbstein Memorial Lecture, which will be delivered by Professor Ali Ansari. This is the sixth in a series of Memorial Lectures dedicated to the memory of the Society’s founder and former Chairman and Talks Organiser, Daniel Salbstein OBE (1937–2020).

The title of Professor Ansari’s lecture is Relations between Iran and Russia: An Historical Perspective. In the first part of his lecture Professor Ansari will focus on relations between the two countries in the 19th century in the context of what is now described as the ‘Great Game’, looking in particular at the Constitutional Revolution in Iran (1906) and its consequences through the end of World War I. The second part will take up the story following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, looking at the changing nature of relations as a consequence of changed geopolitics, shared visions and the consolidation of the ‘alliance’ from 2015 onwards. In conclusion, Professor Ansari will look at what lessons can be drawn from history in terms of state-society relations and how a people-centred approach might yield better results for broader relations going forward.

Ali Ansari is Professor of Iranian History and Founding Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews, Senior Associate Fellow, Royal United Services Institute, and a Senior Policy Fellow at Policy Exchange. In 2016 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2023 he was re-elected President of the British Institute of Persian Studies. In 2020 he was awarded a two-year Knowledge Exchange Fellowship at the FCDO.

His publications include Modern Iran since 1797 (3rd updated Edition, Taylor and Francis, London, 2019); Iran, Islam & Democracy – The Politics of Managing Change (3rd updated Edition, Gingko, London, 2019); These Islands: A Letter to Britain (Haus Curiosities, 2018); Iran: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2014), The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran (CUP, 2012); Iran Under Ahmadinejad (Adelphi Paper, IISS, January 2008), Confronting Iran: The Failure of US Policy and the Roots of Mistrust (Hurst, London, 2006). His latest book is a short history of Iran for Polity Press, published in 2024.

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