Abbas Maleki
Senior Research Associate, International Security Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy
Contact:
Email: abbas_maleki@harvard.edu
Website: http://sharif.edu/~maleki/
Experience
Abbas Maleki was born in Tehran in 1957. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. He has a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the High University for Strategic Sciences, and in 1998, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Kazakh Academy of Sciences.
He is an Assistant Professor at Sharif University of Technology and has taught such diverse subjects as Change Management in MBA programs, Iranian Foreign Policy, the Islamic Revolution, and Iran and its Neighbors. He has served as Director General of the International Institute for Caspian Studies (IICS) since 1997 and as Cultural Advisor to the Chancellor of Sharif University of Technology since 2004. He is a Member of the Board of Directors for the Islamic Culture Publishing Organisation and Deputy for International Affairs in the Office of the Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani. He has been the Director of the International Relations Research Department at the Centre for Strategic Research and Advisor to the President of the National Academy of Art in Iran since 2000; he has held the post of General Manager of Petropars Institute for Oil and Gas since 2004 and that of Collaborator in the Task Force on the Caucasus in the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels since 1999; he is a Member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Iran & the Caucasus, a Member of the Editorial Board, Raahbord (Strategy) Journal, Centre for Strategic Research (CSR), Tehran, and has been Member of the Editorial Board for Central Asia and The Caucasus Journal (Central Asia and the Caucasus Information and Analytical Centre, Sweden) since 2001.
Professor Maleki has published widely on matters of strategic thinking, economics, international relations, Iranian foreign policy, and Iranian gas and oil policies. He has also published and presented extensively, both in Iran and abroad, on the Caspian Sea and Region, Central Asia and the Caucasus, and Islam and Iranian culture.
At Harvard, he is working on energy security, emerging energy dialogue between the Middle East and East Asia, the Caspian Sea legal regime, and Persian Gulf collective security.
November 2007
"Energy Supply and Demand in Eurasia: Cooperation between EU and Iran"
Journal Article, China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, issue 4, volume 5
By Abbas Maleki, Senior Research Associate, International Security Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy
Energy diversification has emerged as one of the most important priorities for a majority of the European countries and the EU. Growing energy demand in Europe combined with a high reliance on Russia as an energy producer have led the EU to look to the Caspian Sea region for alternative energy resources, especially in natural gas. Iran has the 2nd largest natural gas reserves in the world and could assist Europe in diversifying supplies. This article argues that there is substantial potential for energy cooperation between Iran and the European countries, particularly Turkey. Increased Iranian participation in the Eurasian energy market, both as consumer and producer, could lead to other benefits including economic development and more efficient energy extraction.
September 26, 2007
"How to Build US-Iran Relations"
Op-Ed, The Boston Globe
By Abbas Maleki, Senior Research Associate, International Security Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy and Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
"...Iran has not suspended its uranium enrichment program, but it has not ignored the UN Security Council resolutions on Iran either, as can be discerned in the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency citing "significant progress" in Iran-IAEA cooperation. With the United States and Iran talking in Iraq and Iran-IAEA cooperation yielding concrete results in terms of Iran's nuclear transparency, the stage is potentially set for de-escalating the US-Iran tensions, particularly if both sides adopt a long-term view and sort out the security dimension."
September 21, 2007
"U.S., Iran Need to Build Confidence"
Op-Ed, San Francisco Chronicle
By Abbas Maleki, Senior Research Associate, International Security Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy and Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
"...the stage is set for a thaw in U.S.-Iran relations. With sufficient political will on both sides, Washington and Tehran can achieve this by adopting concrete confidence-building measures and by imposing a mutually agreed-upon moratorium on demonizing each other."
September 2007
"Iran-Pakistan-India Pipeline: Is It a Peace Pipeline?"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, MIT Center for International Studies Audit of the Conventional Wisdom, issue 16, volume 7
By Abbas Maleki, Senior Research Associate, International Security Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy
A major natural gas pipeline that would stretch from the fields of southern Iran to Pakistan and India — itself a remarkable prospect — is being planned. But it faces serious hurdles, not least the fierce opposition of the U.S. government.
August 17, 2007
"Saving the Peace Pipeline"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Abbas Maleki, Senior Research Associate, International Security Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy and Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
"...in light of the IPI’s potential contribution to regional development, complementing the North-South corridor under consideration by the member states of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), it may be a good idea to revamp the IPI into a consortium that opens the possibility of a future role by other regional parties, both in terms of investment as well as linkage with the regional gas network."
June 20, 2007
"China-Middle East Dialogue in the Age of Rising Energy"
Book Chapter
By Abbas Maleki, Senior Research Associate, International Security Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy
Abbas Maleki illustrates how China's growing relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia affect Sino-American relations.
2007
Iran
Book Chapter
By Abbas Maleki, Senior Research Associate, International Security Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy
Iran has not acted as a dragon breathing ideological fire across the region, but rather as a traditional entrepreneur and reliable trader.
August 23, 2006
"Iran's Diplomacy in Action"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Abbas Maleki, Senior Research Associate, International Security Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy and Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
In this insider's assessment of Iran's long-awaited response to the incentive package offered by the United States and other world powers, Abbas Maleki and Kaveh Afrasiabi argue that this is an opportunity for diplomacy that could actually halt Iran's nuclear enrichment and address the concerns of the West.
July 21, 2006
Why Not Involve Iran in Effort To Establish Order in Mideast?
Op-Ed, Forward
By Abbas Maleki, Senior Research Associate, International Security Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy
The world faces different crises all the time, and each generation feels its crises to be the biggest.
June 15, 2006
"Finding Compromise in Iran"
Op-Ed, The Boston Globe
By Abbas Maleki, Senior Research Associate, International Security Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy and Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom
"...If Iran is willing to agree to a deal under which it would remain legally committed not to build nuclear weapons, no more centrifuges would be added, and extensive verification would be allowed, that would be far better for US security than letting insistence on zero propel a drift toward confrontation. After all, failure to reach agreement would mean no limit on Iran's centrifuges, and a drift in the direction of sanctions and potential military strikes, with all the dangers they would hold...."
