Abdolrasool Divsallar is a visiting professor at the Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, focusing on defense and strategic studies, regional security reform, and non-proliferation issues. He is also focused on Middle East security, Iran’s military and foreign affairs, Russia-Iran relations, and Persian Gulf security dynamics. Divsallar co-founded and led the Regional Security Initiative at the European University Institute (EUI) from 2020-22. Prior to this, he was a Policy Leader Fellow at the EUI School of Transnational Governance. Between 2005 and 2018 he worked in Tehran in various positions, including as a senior fellow at the Institute for the Middle East Strategic Studies and the Center for Strategic Studies. Divsallar has written and edited eight books, including Stepping Away from the Abyss: A Gradual Approach Towards a New Security System in the Persian Gulf (EUI, 2021), and published numerous peer review papers and journal articles.