The Iranian Oil Crisis and Mossadegh in the Cold War, 1951-1953

Date
Thu May 14th 2026, 10:00 - 11:00am
Event Sponsor
Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies
Event is open to
Everyone
Experience Type
Virtual

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A portrait of Jamil Hasanli, a historian and politician, seated indoors. He is wearing a light beige blazer over a blue button-down shirt. He holds a pair of eyeglasses in his right hand and looks toward the camera with a slight smile. In the background, a brick fireplace and a glimpse of a bookshelf are visible.

In the early 1950s, there were two hot spots of the Cold War: Korea and Iran. Iranian oil had become a firebomb of the Cold War in the Middle East. It was the first oil crisis of the Cold War. The central figure of the dramatic events of 1951-1953 in Iran was Mohammad Mossadegh. He was the most popular national leader of the 20th century. The day before the appointment of Dr. Mossadegh as Prime Minister, the Majlis unanimously supported the law on the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry. However, newly declassified archival documents released after the collapse of the Soviet Union, open documents of CIA, British special services and Turkish diplomatic archives have further enriched our understanding of the first oil crisis of the Cold War in Iran. This talk is based on Dr. Hasanli's forthcoming book The Iranian Oil Crisis and Mossadegh in the Cold War, 1949-1953 (Routledge, 2026).   

This event will take place on Zoom and feature a conversation with Dr. Jamil Hasanli.

Dr. Jamil Hasanli is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research (SAS) of the University of London. He was advisor to the president of Azerbaijan in 1993 and served two terms as a Member of Parliament of Azerbaijan in 2000-2010. In 2013, he was a candidate for the presidential election, representing the united opposition. Professor Hasanli was a History and Public Policy Scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International Center in 2011, and 2020. He received the 2015 Ion Ratiu Democracy Award of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. 2016-2017 he was scholar at the Cold War Center at East China Normal University in Shanghai. Dr. Hasanli is the author of several  books published in Azerbaijan, Russia, USA, UK, Turkey, Iran, Hong Kong (China)  and other countries. Fouг of his monographs were published in the Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series.

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