Vali Nasr: Senior Advisor to Ambassador Holbrooke

Former speaker at SPU's Downtown Business Breakfast works toward peaceful solutions

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In late January 2009, Vali Nasr, the 2007 speaker for Seattle Pacific University's annual Downtown Business Breakfast, was named senior advisor to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nasr will advise primarily on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Nasr is author of the best-seller The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future (W.W. Norton, 2006); he has also written about Pakistan and ethnic violence in South Asia. A professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, he is a leading scholar of Islam and has advised many in the U.S. government, including President George W. Bush and Congress. The National Iranian American Counsel says Vali Nasr has a "proven track record of promoting sound diplomatic strategy regarding Iran" and he is known "for his ardent opposition to military confrontation."

Nasr was born in Tehran, Iran, and is the son of a prominent Iranian philosopher who is now a professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University.

Response invites you to meet Vali Nasr again in the magazine's original article about his visit to SPU.