Virtual Distinguished Speakers Series: "Coups, Chaos & Conflict: How Cold War Interventions Led to the 2026 Iran War" with Ibrahim Al-Marashi

The San Diego World Affairs Council Presents

"Coups, Chaos & Conflict: How Cold War Interventions Led to the 2026 Iran War"

featuring:

Ibrahim Al-Marashi

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026

12:00pm - 1:30pm

Sponsored with Support from: 

About the Program

Historians may well mark the last day of February 2026, as the day the world crossed a line from which it will be exceptionally difficult to reverse course, when the US and Israel launched a wide-scale military operation against Iran. However, this war aimed at regime change is not the first American military engagement with Iran; rather, it is embedded in a history that began during World War II, which can be characterized as the beginning of American "hybrid warfare" in Iran, establishing a “playbook” for Cold War coups. Some argue the Cold War began when Truman objected to Soviet troops that remained in Iran after 1945. The 1953 Anglo-American coup that reinstalled the Shah served as a precedent for the 1954 overthrow of Arbenz in Guatemala, the first for oil, the second for bananas, creating the term “Banana Republic.” The US remained in Iran, helping Iranian pilots fly the F-14s, the aircraft of Top Gun fame, present on Iranian soil, contributing to the nationalist sentiment that led to the 1979 revolution. The US engaged in military operations against the Islamic Republic, from the failed 1980 rescue attempt of the American embassy hostages to the 1988 downing of an Iranian Airbus as the Cold War came to an end. The method of "hybrid war" demonstrates the long history of this practice before it entered the political lexicon and its application to Russia and its “Gerasimov Doctrine,” combining traditional military force with cyberattacks, disinformation, and economic pressure. This form of American “Cold Hybrid War” continues into the 21st century, with the so-called 12-Day War of July 2025, the January 2026 raid in Venezuela, and the February 2026 War with Iran. 

About Ibrahim Al-Marashi

Ibrahim al-Marashi is an Associate Professor of History at California State University, advisory board member of SDSU’s ISCOR program, visiting faculty at The American College of the Mediterranean, in Aix-en-Provence, the Department of International Relations at Central European University, in Vienna, and teaches corporate intelligence at International University of Monaco. His publications include Iraq’s Armed Forces: An Analytical History (2008), The Modern History of Iraq (2017), and A Concise History of the Middle East (2024).

*Free to attend. Zoom link to be sent after registration.*