Vali Nasar

Vali Reza Nasr 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 the 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 and is described by The Economist as "a leading world authority on Shia Islam".

Son of the Iranian academic, philosopher, and scholar of religion Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Vali Nasr was born in Tehran, Imperial State of Iran in 1960, went to school in England at age 16, and immigrated to the United States after the 1979 Revolution. He received his B.A. degree from Tufts University in international relations summa cum laude. 

He earned his M.A. degree in international economics and Middle East studies from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1984, then went on to earn his Ph.D. in political science from the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in 1991. 

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.

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. He is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 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 several monographs on the study of Middle Eastern politics and societies, including The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama`at-i Islami of Pakistan (1994), Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism (1997), The Islamic Leviathan (2001), Democracy in Iran (written with Ali Gheissari, 2006), The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future (2006), Meccanomics: The March of the New Muslim Middle Class (2010), Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It will Mean for Our World (2010), and The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat (2013).

Nasr's writing has addressed politics and Islamic activism in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and throughout the Arab world. He has highlighted the role of states in the process of Islamization throughout the history of the Middle East and the importance of sectarian identity in Middle-Eastern politics, including the growing importance of Shīʿa Islam and its relation to the politics of Iran and other Middle-Eastern countries following the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1978–1979) and the Iraq War (2003–2011). 

His book Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It will Mean for Our World (2010) focused on the importance of a new middle class for the future of the Muslim world. He appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on 1 August 2006, 22 September 2009, and 25 April 2013. Due to the accuracy of his political predictions Nasr has been hailed as a "shrewd forecaster."

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