The Gholam Reza Nikpay Annual Lecture 2025
In a short span of fifteen years the lands between Nile and Ganges were invaded by three European imperial armies: Britain, France and Russia. Caught between two rival powers, Qajar Iran had little choice but to try to strike a balance between Russia in the north and Britain in the south.
In this Prof Abbas Amanat argues that even the idea of a regional alliance, as proposed by Tipu Soltan of Mysore at the very end of the 18th century, could not have persuaded Fath Ali Shah Qajar to change course. As an anxious observer, the tragic fall of Mysore convinced him not to entertain ambitions beyond his means. Two rounds of disastrous wars with Russia further proved the point. Strategically vulnerable and with limited economic and human resources, maintaining a fragile status quo seemed to be the safest, if not the only, option for preserving Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Gholam Reza Nikpay Annual Lecture:
Each year the Iranian History Initiative invites a world-leading historian of modern Iran to deliver the Gholam Reza Nikpay Annual Lecture at LSE. This annual lecture was established in 2023 to honour the memory of one of LSE’s most distinguished Iranian alumni, Dr Gholam Reza Nikpay, who served as Minister of Housing from 1966 to 1969, Mayor of Tehran from 1969 to 1977, and subsequently a member of the Iranian Senate.
About our speaker:
Prof Abbas Amanat is the William Graham Sumner Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University. A graduate of Alborz high school, he received his B.A. from Tehran University in 1971 and his Doctorate of Philosophy from the School of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, in 1981. He taught at Yale University between 1983 and 2021. He has written about early modern and modern history of Iran, the Middle East, the Muslim world and the Persianate world.
About our chair:
Dr Roham Alvandi is Associate Professor of International History and Director of the Iranian History Initiative at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has written extensively on both Iran’s modern history and the history of U.S. foreign relations. His focuses on human rights activism in Europe and the United States and the origins of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. His scholarly work has appeared in the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Cold War History, Diplomatic History, and Iranian Studies.
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