Head shot of Middle East fellow Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar

Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar

Fellow for the Middle East

Biography

Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar, Ph.D., is a fellow for the Middle East at the Baker Institute. His research focuses on U.S.-Iran relations, nuclear politics and the politics of ideology.

Tabaar is also an associate professor in international affairs at Texas A&M Universitys Bush School of Government and Public Service, where he teaches courses on U.S. foreign policy in the Persian Gulf and Middle East politics. He has previously taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Georgetown University and George Washington University. He has also been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, George Washington University, and the University of Cambridge. He is the author of “Religious Statecraft: The Politics of Islam in Iran” (Columbia University Press, 2018), and his articles have appeared in Security Studies, the Journal of Strategic Studies, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Tabaar received his Ph.D. in comparative politics and international relations from Georgetown University, an M.A. in international relations from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in sociology from the New School for Social Research in New York City, and a B.A. in social sciences from the University of Tehran.

Contact at mat15@rice.edu or 713-348-3754.