On November 11th, the Young Initiative at 鶹Ƶ hosted a talk by Dr. Huss Banai, the Zahedi Fellow at Stanford University and Associate Professor at Indiana University.
On Monday, November 11th, 2024, the Young Initiative hosted Dr. Huss Banai to discuss his research for his upcoming three-part book series, which will explore enmity in domestic and international politics, using Iran as a case study to explore enmity in a theocratic society. Dr. Banai is an Associate Professor of International Studies in the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he is also a faculty affiliate in the departments of Political Science, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and Central Eurasian Studies. He is also a Research Affiliate at the Center for International Studies at MIT. Currently, he is a Zahedi Fellow at Stanford University.
Dr. Banai, in conversation with Professor Anthony Chase, discussed his previous research and publications around liberalism, enmity, and human rights. He discussed his interest in enmity, and how it has become a key function in politics, specifically Western politics. He dissected the definition of enmity and how it seeps into political culture, masking itself as a policy plan to neutralize or eliminate political opponents. Dr. Banai referenced other scholars, like Martha Nussbaum and William Hazlitt, to discover the roots of enmity, whether it comes from love or pure emotion. He then expanded this theory into modern politics, discussing the recent Presidential Election in the United States and how the President-Elect, Donald Trump, uses political enmity to neutralize opponents and wield it against citizens who are marginalized and otherwise do not fit into his idea of a “perfect America”. Dr. Banai narrows his research of enmity into how it functions in politics, instead of concerns of root causes.
Dr. Huss Banai then transitioned his discussion into opposing forces of enmity, and if society can transition into a time where enmity can exist without catastrophic violence, where truth and reconciliation are paramount. Dr. Banai concluded his conversation with enmity in Iran, with religious basis for governance being used in a crude binary.