Abdolrasool Divsallar

Abdolrasool (Farzam) Divsallar is a political scientist working on the Middle East regional security system with a focus on Iran. He is a visiting Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the Higher School of Economics and International Relations (AZERI) at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and a Non-resident Scholar with MEI's Iran Program.

Divsallar co-founded the Regional Security Initiative (RSI) at the Middle East Directions Programme in the European University Institute (EUI) in 2020. In this role he led a combined research and dialogues project on rethinking the security architecture in the Persian Gulf region and worked closely with EU institutions on this matter. Prior to this, he was a Policy Leader Fellow at the EUI School of Transnational Governance. Between 2005 and 2019 he worked in Iran as a senior fellow at the Institute for the Middle East Strategic Studies, researcher at the Defense Industries Training and Research Institute, and non-resident researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies of the Expediency Council.

He received his Ph.D. in political science-Iranian studies from University of Tehran. He has an extensive experience with field work, particularly in the south-east of Iran, and has conducted large number of interviews as part of his Ph.D. research on the Security-Development nexus in Iran. He has taught both in Iran and Europe and has written 10 books and dozens of papers in top international journals such as 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

• “Shifting Threats and Strategic Adjustment in Iran’s Foreign Policy: The case of the Strait of Hormuz”, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 2021.

• “The Pillars of Iranian-Russian Security Convergence”, The International Spectator, Vol.54, No.3, 2019.

• Steping Away from Abyss: A Gradual Approach Towards a New Security System in the Persian Gulf, (European University Institute Press, 2021.)

• “The Fallouts of US-Iran Confrontations for Russia: Revisiting Factors in Moscow’s Calculus”, Joint RSCAS/Middle East Directions and Russian International Affairs Council, 2021

• “Why Biden Shouldn’t Deprive Iran from Conventional Deterrence”, Middle East Institute, February 25, 2021.

• “De-escalating the Iran Crisis: Is there a Role for Europe”, RSCAS/Middle East Directions Policy Brief, European University Institute, 2020.

• “Security-Development Nexus in Foreign Policy: The Case of Soviet-Iran relations 1962-1979” [in Farsi], Politics Quarterly, Vol.49, No.2, 2019.

• “Reviving Security Function: EU's path to Save the JCPOA”, Egmont Security Policy Brief, No.113, Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations, 2019.

• “Political Rationality in Iranian Foreign Policy”, The Washington Quarterly, Vol.40, No.1, Spring, 2017.

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