Vali Nasr

Vali Nasr
8th Dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
In office July 1, 2012 – June 14, 2019
Preceded by	Jessica Einhorn
Succeeded by	Eliot A. Cohen
Personal details
Born	Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr (1960-12-20) December 20, 1960 (age 60) Tehran, Iran
Children	3
Education	Tufts University (BA),(MA) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PhD)
Awards	Ellis Island Medal of Honor

Vali Reza Nasr (Persian: ولی‌ رضا نصر‎, born 20 December 1960) is an Iranian-American academic and author specializing in the Middle East and the Islamic world. He is Majid Khaddouri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. He served as the eighth dean of the school from 2012 to 2019. Nasr is also a Non-Resident Fellow in South Asia at Atlantic Council^[1] and is described by The Economist as "a leading world authority on Shia Islam".^[2]

Biography[]

Son of Iranian philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Vali Nasr was born in Tehran in 1960, went to school in England at age 16, and immigrated to the U.S. after the 1979 Revolution. He received his BA from Tufts University in international relations summa cum laude. He earned his master's degree in international economics and Middle East studies from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1984, then went on to earn his PhD in political science from MIT in 1991.^[3]

Career[]

He taught at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University, University of San Diego and the Naval Postgraduate School and was a senior fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard University, as well as Stanford University and University of California, San Diego prior to being appointed dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in March 2012.^[4]

Nasr was a member of the State Department's Foreign Affairs Policy Board and served as senior advisor to the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, between 2009 and 2011.^[5] He is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.^[6]

Publications[]

Nasr is a political scientist by training and has focused on comparative politics and international relations of the Middle East. He is the author of The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat, Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It will Mean for Our World, The Shia Revival, The Islamic Leviathan, Democracy in Iran, The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama`at-i Islami of Pakistan, and Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism. Nasr's writing has addressed politics and Islamic activism in Afghanistan, Iran and throughout the Arab world. He has highlighted the role of states in Islamization and the importance of sectarian identity in Middle East politics, including the growing importance of Shia politics following the Iraq War. His book Forces of Fortune focused on the importance of a new middle class to future of the Muslim world.^[7]

He appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on 1 August 2006,^[8] 22 September 2009,^[9] and 25 April 2013.^[10] Due to the accuracy of his political predictions Nasr has been hailed as a "shrewd forecaster."^[11]

Personal life[]

Nasr is the son of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a prominent Iranian academic and scholar of religion. He is married to a technology executive. They have three sons and one daughter.^[12]

See also[]

• List of Iranian Americans
• Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Publications[]

• Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat (Doubleday, 2013)
• Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It will Mean for Our World (Free Press, 2009), also published under the titles The Rise of Islamic Capitalism: Why the New Middle Class is Key to Defeating Extremism and Meccanomics: The March of the New Muslim Middle Class in the U.K.
• The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam will Shape the Future (W.W. Norton & Company, 2006)
• Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty (coauthor, 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)[6]
• The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama`at-i Islami of Pakistan (University of California Press, 1994)[7]
• Oxford Dictionary of Islam (editor, Oxford University Press, 2003)[8]
• Expectation of the Millennium: Shi'ism in History (coeditor, State University of New York Press, 1989)[9]
• The Arab Moment Has Passed from Foreign Policy
• The Impact of the Pandemic on Geopolitical in the MENA Region from in Navigating the Pandemic: The Challenge of Stability and Prosperity in the Mediterranean MED
• A Nuclear Deal Won’t Secure the Middle East, But Regional Cooperation Could, and Washington Should Support It from Foreign Affairs
• Iran Among the Ruins: Tehran’s Advantage in a Turbulent Middle East from Foreign Affairs
• Business, Not As Usual from Finance and Development
• When Shiites Rise" from Foreign Affairs
• "The Cost of Containing Iran" (coauthored with Ray Takeyh) from Foreign Affairs
• "Who Wins in Iraq? Iran" from Foreign Policy
• "The Rise of Muslim Democracy" from Journal of Democracy
• "The Conservative Consolidation in Iran" from Survival
• "The Regional Implications of Shi'a Revival in Iraq" from The Washington Quarterly
• "Iran’s Peculiar Election: The Conservative Wave Rolls On" from Journal of Democracy
• "The Democracy Debate in Iran" (coauthor) from Middle East Policy Journal
• "Military Rule, Islamism, and Democracy in Pakistan" from The Middle East Journal
• "Lessons from the Muslim World" from Dædalus

References[]

External links[]

• Vali Nasr on Twitter
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Nasr's SAIS bio
• Nasr review in NYT
• New York Times Profile