Vali Nasr
Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Adjunct Sr. Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Professor of International Politics & Assoc. Director, Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Fletcher School, Tufts University
Contact:
Telephone: 619-339-9192
Email: vali_nasr@yahoo.com
Experience
Vali R. Nasr is an adjunct senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and professor of international politics and Associate Director of the Fares Center of Eastern Mediterranean Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University. He is a specialist on Middle East politics and political Islam, and has worked extensively on political and social developments in the Muslim world with a focus on the relation of religion to politics, social change, and democratization. He also serves as a senior fellow for the Dubai Initiative at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Dr. Nasr is the author of five books: The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future (W.W. Norton, 2006); Democracy in Iran (Oxford University Press, 2006); The Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the Making of State Power (Oxford University Press, 2001); Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism (Oxford University Press, 1996); and The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama`at-i Islami of Pakistan (University of California Press, 1994). He is editor of The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (Oxford University Press, 2003); and the author of numerous articles in academic journals and encyclopedias. His works have been translated into several languages.
Dr. Nasr has briefed the White House, the Congress, the U.S. Department of State, the National Security Council, and the U.S. Department of Defense on Middle East issues. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, The New Republic, La Repubblica, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and was profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. His interviews and expert commentary have also been used in newspapers and new programs around the world, including Al-Jazeera, Der Spiegel, CNN, BBC, and 60 Minutes. He has appeared as a guest on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, The Charlie Rose Show, Meet the Press, Larry King Live, The Colbert Report, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
He was recently named a 2006 Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corporation. He has also been the recipient of grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Dr. Nasr received his BA from Tufts University in international relations summa cum laude and was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa in 1983. He earned his MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in international economics and Middle East studies in 1984 and his PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology in 1991.
June 19, 2008
"Iran on Its Heels"
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By Vali Nasr, Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Adjunct Sr. Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Professor of International Politics & Assoc. Director, Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Fletcher School, Tufts University
Iran still has considerable influence in Iraq. It may reconstitute the Mahdi Army and pick up the fight against America, using special groups of the type suspected in the Baghdad car bombing Tuesday. It may also try to use nationalist opposition to the U.S.-Iraq "status of forces" agreement to its advantage. But Tehran will find it difficult to regain lost turf in Baghdad or Basra, or to go back to happily supporting Shiites both at the center and in the militias. It will have to choose whether it is with the state or the sub-state actors.
June 18, 2008
Vali Nasr Discusses Iraq on Charlie Rose
Media Feature
By Vali Nasr, Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Adjunct Sr. Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Professor of International Politics & Assoc. Director, Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Fletcher School, Tufts University
DI Senior Fellow Vali Nasr tells Charlie Rose about his recent trip to Iraq. The Council on Foreign Relation's Stephen Biddle and the New York Times' Michael Gordon also weigh in.
Watch the full program here.
AP Photo
January 8, 2008
US-Iran Relations
Media Feature
By Vali Nasr, Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Adjunct Sr. Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Professor of International Politics & Assoc. Director, Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Fletcher School, Tufts University
Vali Nasr discusses current tensions between the United States and Iran on The World.
January/February 2008
"The Costs of Containing Iran: Washington's Misguided New Middle East Policy"
Journal Article, Foreign Affairs
By Vali Nasr, Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Adjunct Sr. Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Professor of International Politics & Assoc. Director, Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Fletcher School, Tufts University and Ray Takeyh
The Bush administration wants to contain Iran by rallying the support of Sunni Arab states and now sees Iran's containment as the heart of its Middle East policy: a way to stabilize Iraq, declaw Hezbollah, and restart the Arab-Israeli peace process. But the strategy is unsound and impractical, and it will probably further destabilize an already volatile region.
December 29, 2007
Effect of Bhutto's Death
Media Feature
By Vali Nasr, Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Adjunct Sr. Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Professor of International Politics & Assoc. Director, Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Fletcher School, Tufts University
CNN's Drew Griffin talks to Vali Nasr about the death of Benazir Bhutto and its effect on Pakistan.
December 18, 2007
"How Iran's president is being undercut"
Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor
By Vali Nasr, Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Adjunct Sr. Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Professor of International Politics & Assoc. Director, Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Fletcher School, Tufts University
Because the theocratic regime now feels immune from military retribution and is confronting a fragmented international community, it is likely to be fortified in its efforts to complete the fuel cycle. Meanwhile, Iran is cooperating with inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency and is judged by the CIA to have suspended critical components of its nuclear network. It has no reason to cease any of its activities.
AP Photo
December 9, 2007
"Meet 'The Decider' of Tehran. It's Not the Hothead You Expect"
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By Vali Nasr, Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Adjunct Sr. Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Professor of International Politics & Assoc. Director, Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Fletcher School, Tufts University
When most Americans think of Iran, they probably think of its incendiary president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Since his election in 2005, Ahmadinejad has gleefully shocked the world with his defiance over Iran's nuclear programs, his ravings about a Shiite messiah, his jeremiads against Israel and his denial that the Holocaust occurred. But while Ahmadinejad is surely the regime's face, he's not its boss. Since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's death in 1989, the real power in Tehran has belonged to the country's supreme leader and top cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ahmadinejad makes all the noise, but Khamenei pulls all the strings.
December 7, 2007
A discussion about the new intelligence on Iran
Media Feature
By Vali Nasr, Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Adjunct Sr. Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Professor of International Politics & Assoc. Director, Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Fletcher School, Tufts University
Vali Nasr discusses the new intelligence on Iran with Charlie Rose.
December 6, 2007
"Get Tehran Inside of the Tent"
Op-Ed, International Herald Tribune
By Vali Nasr, Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Adjunct Sr. Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Professor of International Politics & Assoc. Director, Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Fletcher School, Tufts University and Ray Takeyh
Dialogue, compromise and commerce, as difficult as they maybe, are a means of providing Tehran with incentives to commit itself to regional stability. Instead of militarizing the Gulf and forming up shaky alliances on Iran's periphery, Washington should move toward a local security system featuring all the regional actors.
December 5, 2007
The Shifting Balance of Power
Media Feature
By Joseph S. Nye, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, Rami Khouri, Dubai Initiative Senior Fellow, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and Editor-at-Large of the Daily Star, Vali Nasr, Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Adjunct Sr. Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Professor of International Politics & Assoc. Director, Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Fletcher School, Tufts University and Dr. Ashton B. Carter, Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project, Harvard & Stanford Universities
"The Middle East: Between Progress and Conflict," an inaugural conference jointly hosted by The Dubai Initiative and the Dubai School of Government, was held on November 8, 2007 at the Kennedy School of Government.
Panel I: The Shifting Balance of Power was chaired by Joseph Nye and featured the following presentions, followed by a Q&A:
- America and the Arab World - Rami Khouri
- Contending with Iran's Regional Role - Vali Nasr
- Challenges of Nuclear Proliferation - Ashton Carter
