Abdolrasool Divsallar

Dr. Abdolrasool (Farzam) Divsallar is a Senior Researcher for the Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone (ME WMDFZ) Project.

He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute (MEI) in Washington. His area of research lies at the intersection of security studies and regional studies. Dr. Divsallar’s focus and interests include military strategies in the Persian Gulf, Iran’s military and foreign affairs, regional security reform, Middle East non-proliferation issues, Russia-Iran relations, and security assistance. He has written and edited eight books, including Struggle for Alliance: Russia and Iran in the Era of War in Ukraine (2024), and has published numerous peer review journal articles.

Prior to joining UNIDIR, and between 2019-2023, Divsallar was a visiting Professor at the Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and a co-led of the Regional Security Initiative at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. In these roles, he led a combined research and dialogue efforts on rethinking the security architecture in the Persian Gulf region. Divsallar has been a Policy Leader Fellow at the EUI School of Transnational Governance in 2020. Between 2005 and 2018 he worked in Tehran in various positions including at the Institute for the Middle East Strategic Studies, Defense Industries Training and Research Institute, and Center for Strategic Studies. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science – Iranian Studies from the University of Tehran.

Divsallar speaks, English, Farsi, and Italian.