Vali Reza Nasr (Persian: ولی‌ رضا نصر, born 20 December 1960) is an Iranian-American academic and political scientist, specializing in Middle Eastern studies and the history of Islam.

Nasr is also a Non-Resident Fellow in South Asia at Atlantic Council,[1] and has been described by The Economist as "a leading world authority on Shia Islam".

[4] Nasr was a member of the State Department's Foreign Affairs Policy Board and served as senior advisor to the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, between 2009 and 2011.

He is the author of several monographs on the study of Middle Eastern politics and societies, including The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama`at-i Islami of Pakistan (1994), Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism (1997), The Islamic Leviathan (2001), Democracy in Iran (written with Ali Gheissari, 2006), The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future (2006), Meccanomics: The March of the New Muslim Middle Class (2010), Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It will Mean for Our World (2010), and The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat (2013).

Nasr's writing has addressed politics and Islamic activism in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and throughout the Arab world.