Dr. Barzegar is the director of the Institute for Middle East Strategic Studies in Tehran. He is also a professor of international relations and chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the Science and Research Branch of the Islamic Azad University (IAU), a research associate at the MIT International Security Program, and a senior researcher at the Center for Strategic Research. From 2007 to 2011, he was a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He was also a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics from 2002 to 2003. Dr. Barzegar received his B.A. in political science from Tehran University, his M.A. in political science from Beheshti University, and his Ph.D. in international relations from the Science and Research Branch of IAU in Tehran. He is the editor of Discourse, an Iranian English- language quarterly.