What can diplomacy with Iran achieve?
From the negotiations on the Nuclear Agreement with Iran to the U.S.-Israeli wars against Iran in 2025/2026
20. Mai 2026 | 5:30 – 7:00 P.M. | Festsaal, University Main Building
Lecture by former Ambassador Hans-Dieter Lucas (former Political Director at the Federal Foreign Office and CASSIS Senior Fellow).
Relations between Iran, the United States, and Israel exemplify the tensions in modern diplomacy between negotiation, deterrence, and military escalation. While the nuclear agreement was long regarded as the central approach to curbing Iran’s nuclear program, developments in 2025–2026 reveal the fragility of diplomatic processes: failed negotiations led to direct military confrontations between the parties involved.
Against this backdrop, the fundamental question arises as to what scope for action diplomacy still possesses under conditions of increasing violence. Can it sustainably de-escalate conflicts – or is it increasingly overshadowed by strategic and military logic? The lecture by former Ambassador Lucas, who served as the German chief negotiator in the negotiations on the nuclear agreement from 2011 to 2015, sheds light on these dynamics and discusses what role diplomacy can still play today in the context of the Iran conflict.
Procedure
Introduction
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie
Henry-Kissinger-Professor for Security and Strategy
Lecture and discussion
Ambassador retd. Dr. Hans-Dieter Lucas
Former Political Director at the Federal Foreign Office and CASSIS Senior Fellow
More information
The event is part of the University of Bonn’s Dies Academicus.