Vali Nasr

Vali Nasr is a senior adviser (non-resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Majid Khadduri professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Between 2012 and 2019 he served as the dean of SAIS, and between 2009 and 2011 as senior advisor to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. Nasr has advised world leaders and major corporations, and is the author of several acclaimed books, including Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History; How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare; The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat; The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future; and Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty; as well as articles in scholarly journals and commentary in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, and on CNN, BBC, and other major global media outlets. He is a member of global board of trustees of Asia Society, a life member of the Council for Foreign Relations, and a former member of World Economic Forum’s global council. Nasr is the recipient of Carnegie Scholar Award, and the Frank Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundation research fellowships. He was selected as Henry Alfred Kissinger Distinguished Scholar at Library of Congress for 2024–25.