Abdolrasool Divsallar

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

• Towards a non-Western model of security assistance: How Iran assist militaries, Mediterranean Politics, 2023.

• “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