June 16, 2005

Speaker Biographies

Michael Rubin, is a resident scholar at AEI, focusing on Arab democracy and domestic politics in Iran and Iraq. He is also the editor of the Middle East Quarterly. Before returning to AEI, Mr. Rubin was a political adviser in the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and an assistant on Iran and Iraq in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He was a visiting lecturer on international relations and history at Hebrew University (Jerusalem) from 2001–2002 and at the Universities of Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok (Iraqi Kurdistan) from 2000–2001. From 1999-2000, he was a Soref Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a visiting lecturer in history at Yale University.

A. William Samii is a regional analysis coordinator with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Online and editor of the "RFE/RL Iran Report." He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge. His research articles have appeared in the "Middle East Journal," "Middle East Policy," and the "Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal." He has contributed to several books about the Middle East.

Mohsen Sazegara is a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute. In 1979, he returned with Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran to found the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and become managing director of the National Radio of Iran. He held many state positions during the 1980s, including political deputy in the prime minister’s office and chairman of the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran. In 1989, he left the Revolutionary government and became publisher of several reformist newspapers. In 2001 his candidacy for President was rejected by the Guardian Council. He has since created an internet petition for a referendum on the Iranian constitution.

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