Alex VATANKA is a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute, specializing in Middle Eastern regional security affairs with a particular focus on Iran. He previously served as a Senior Analyst at Jane’s Information Group in London and currently also serves as a Senior Fellow in Middle East Studies at the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School (USAFSOS) and as an Adjunct Professor at DISAS at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and provided lectures and policy briefings for the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, intelligence agencies, and international corporations.
Born in Tehran, he received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Sheffield and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Essex. He is the author of 『The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran』 (2021) and 『Iran and Pakistan』 (2015) and has contributed to numerous publications on Middle Eastern geopolitics, terrorism, proxy warfare, and Iranian foreign policy. He is currently working on his third book, 『Iran’s Arab Strategy』.