Seyed Hossein Mousavian is a Middle East Security and Nuclear Policy Specialist at the Program on Science and Global Security. He is a former diplomat who served as Iran’s Ambassador to Germany (1990-1997), Head of the Foreign Relations Committee of Iran’s National Security Council (1997-2005), Spokesman for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the international community (2003-2005), Foreign Policy Advisor to the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (2005-2007), Vice President of the Center for Strategic Research for International Affairs (2005-2009), General Director of Foreign Ministry for West Europe (1987-1990), Chief of Parliament Administration (1984-1986), and the editor-in-chief of the English-language international newspaper Tehran Times (1980-1990). Mousavian earned a PhD in international relations from the University of Kent, United Kingdom.
Research Interests
Seyed Hossein Mousavian studies and makes proposals for policy initiatives and diplomatic solutions to the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program, to advance the goal of a Middle East Weapon of Mass Destruction Free Zone, improve US-Iran bilateral relations and foster peaceful resolution of security crises in the Middle East so as to advance nonproliferation, peace and stability in the region. To better understand and inform scholarship and policy debates on these goals, he participates intensively in public and private discussions with high-level policy makers, Track 1.5 processes, and public diplomacy focused on the United States, Europe, leading countries in the international system, Iran and other states in the Middle East.
Publications
BOOKS
S. H. Mousavian, “A Middle East Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction”, Routledge, May 2020
S. H. Mousavian, A New Structure for Security, Peace, and Cooperation in the Persian Gulf, Rowman & Littlefield, December 2020
S. H. Mousavian, Iran and the United States, An Insider’s View on the Failed Past and the Road to Peace, Bloomsbury, 2014.
S. H. Mousavian, Iranian Nuclear Crisis, A Memoir, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC, 2012.
S. H. Mousavian, Iran-Europe Relations: Challenges and Opportunities, Routledge Press, 2008.
SELECTED ARTICLES
S. H. Mousavian, Nine hurdles to reviving the Iran nuclear deal; Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists, January 19, 2021
S. H. Mousavian, How Biden can avoid traps laid by opponents of the Iran nuclear deal. Middle East Eye. November 30, 2020
S. H. Mousavian, Trump Has Recklessly Dragged the Persian Gulf to the Brink of War, The National Interest, January 25, 2020
S. H. Mousavian, How Iran Sees Its Standoff With the United States, Foreign Affairs, July 12, 2019.
S. H. Mousavian, Abdulaziz Sager, It is Time For The Leaders Of Saudi Arabia and Iran To Talk, May 14, 2019
S. H. Mousavian and M. M. Mousavian, Building on the Iran Nuclear Deal for International Peace and Security, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, January 2, 2018.
S. H. Mousavian, The Strategic Disaster of Leaving the Iran Deal, Foreign Affairs, May 10, 2018
S. H. Mousavian and S. Toossi, Assessing U.S.-Iran Nuclear Engagement, Washington Quarterly, Fall 2017.
S. H. Mousavian, Reza Nasri, Obama Needs To Protect The Iran Nuclear Deal, New York Times, June, 20, 2016
S. H. Mousavian, America needs Iranian cooperation: Column, USA Today, January, 14, 2016
S. H. Mousavian, A rejection of the nuclear deal could lead to radicalism in Iran, Washington Post, August 28, 2015
S. H. Mousavian, The Iran Nuclear Dilemma: The Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy and the NPT’s Main Objectives, in Harald Müller and Daniel Müller (eds.), WMD Arms Control in the Middle East: Prospects, Obstacles, and Options, Ashgate Publishing, February 2015.
A. Glaser, Zia Mian, S. H. Mousavian, and F. N. von Hippel, Agreeing on Limits for Iran’s Centrifuge Program: A Two-Stage Strategy, Arms Control Today, July/August 2014.
S. H. Mousavian, The Solution to the Iranian Nuclear Crisis and Its Consequences for the Middle East, Global Governance, 20 (4), 2014.
F. N. von Hippel, S. H. Mousavian, E. Kiyaei, H. A. Feiveson and Zia Mian, Fissile Material Controls in the Middle East: Steps toward a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and all other Weapons of Mass Destruction, Research Report 11, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, October 2013.
For additional articles, interviews, lectures, and commentary, see www.hosseinmousavian.com.