Dr. Abdolrasool (Farzam) Divsallar is a political scientist working on the Middle East regional security system with a focus on Iran. Dr. Divsallar is a Senior Researcher at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and an Adjunct Professor at the Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. His area of research lies at the intersection of security and regional studies. Dr. Divsallar’s interests include Iranian military strategy and civil-military relations, Iran’s foreign policy and security decision-making structure, security assistance, and Russia-Iran relations.

Dr. Divsallar co-led the Regional Security Initiative at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence between 2020 and 2022. In that role he led a combined research and dialogue effort to rethink the security architecture in the Persian Gulf region. Earlier Dr. Divsallar was a Policy Leader Fellow at the EUI School of Transnational Governance. Between 2005 and 2018 he worked in Tehran in various positions, including at the Institute for Middle East Strategic Studies, the Defense Industries Training and Research Institute, and the Center for Strategic Studies.

He received his Ph.D. in political science-Iranian studies from the University of Tehran. He has extensive experience with field work, particularly in Iran’s south-eastern provinces, where he conducted studies on dynamics around the security-development nexus. He has taught both in Iran and Europe and has written and edited eight books, including Struggle for Alliance: Russia and Iran in the Era of War in Ukraine (2024) and Stepping Away from the Abyss: A Gradual Approach Towards a New Security System in the Persian Gulf (2021). Dr. Divsallar has published dozens of academic papers in top international journals, such as Mediterranean Politics, Washington Quarterly, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, and The International Spectator.

Areas of expertise
Iran, Persian Gulf region

Issues of expertise
Iran’s military doctrine, Iran-Russia relations, Iran-EU relations, Iran’s foreign policy institutions, international security of the Persian Gulf, comparative security studies, great power politics, non-proliferation and disarmament

Working Language
English, Persian, Italian, Arabic

Selected Publications

Full Publications
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8606-9911

 

Contact Information

Please contact media@mei.edu or call 202-785-1141 ext. 241 for assistance contacting this expert.

Twitter Handle: @Divsallar

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