Built Here, Tested There: Technology, the New Congress, and the Next Iran Fight

Please join Gregg Roman, Executive Director of the Middle East Forum, for a private lunch on the technology questions now at the center of America’s Middle East policy. The Iran war showed how much of modern deterrence runs on tools designed in places like Silicon Valley: satellite intelligence, drone and counter-drone systems, and the software that links American, Israeli, and Gulf air defenses into one shield. Tehran learned the same lesson and is rebuilding its missile and drone programs, with Beijing eager to supply the parts. The new Congress will vote on export controls, defense-technology budgets, and U.S.–Israel research cooperation, and one flank wants to cut the partnership while the other asks why America should stay in the region at all. Meanwhile, the campaign to isolate Israel has spread from campus protests into the region’s own companies, where employee activists push firms to drop Israeli contracts. Gregg will explain what this technology changed on the battlefield, where the gaps remain, and how the Forum is working to protect both America’s technological edge and the alliances it depends on.

📅 Monday, November 9, 2026
📍Palo Alto, CA (Exact location will be provided upon registration)
🕕 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm