Vali Nasr

Vali Nasr
8th Dean of Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
Assumed office
1 July 2012 (2012-07-01)
Preceded by Jessica Einhorn
Personal details
Born (1960-12-20) 20 December 1960
Tehran, Iran
Nationality Iranian-American
Children 3
Alma mater Tufts University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Religion Islam
Professorships Fletcher School (2007–12)
NPS (2003–07)
Notable work(s) The Shia Revival
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 currently Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. and a Senior Fellow in foreign policy at Brookings Institution.[1] He is described by The Economist as "a leading world authority on Shia Islam".[2]

Biography

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

He is the author of The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat (2013), Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World (2009), The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future (2006), and several other books on Iran, Pakistan, Islam and politics, and Middle East politics and economy.

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 Pakistan, in 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 Hossein Nasr, a prominent Iranian academic and scholar of religion. He is married to Darya, a technology executive. They have three children, sons Amir and Hossein, and daughter Donia.[12]

Publications

References

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