Alex Vatanka

Alex Vatanka (Persian: آلکس وطنخواه) is a senior fellow and the founding director of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C.

He is also a senior fellow in Middle East Studies at the US Air Force Special Operations School at Hurlburt Field and teaches as an adjunct professor at Wright-Patterson AFB.

As a senior fellow at Middle East Institute, Vatanka's research covers Iranian foreign and domestic affairs, including political-military relations and intra-regime power competition.

When Tehran has been able to make inroads in the region - specifically in Armenia and less so in Georgia - it has done so overwhelmingly because those states lack alternatives and not because of a convincing Iranian message."

The two main antagonists of the book are Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and the man who put him in that position, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Alex Vatanka 2023