The seminar was delivered by Dr Mohammad Reza Kalantari, Lecturer in International Relations of the Middle East and Director of the Centre for Islamic & West Asian Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. Dr Kalantari’s research centres on the interplay of regional doctrines, elite ideologies, and political Islam. His latest book, The Clergy and the Modern Middle East: Shiʿi Political Activism in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon (Bloomsbury, 2021), examines the role of Shiʿi clerics in contemporary politics. Through interviews with key figures, the book scrutinizes pivotal events like Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, the 2003 Iraq War, and the 2006 war in Lebanon.