Afshin Molavi
Afshin Molavi is an Iranian-American author and co-director of Emerge 85 Lab, a joint research initiative between the Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute and UAE-based Delma Institute. He is also a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and a senior advisor at Oxford Analytica. At New America, he co-directs the World Economy Roundtable, which focuses on changes in the global economy following the Great Recession. In 2005, he was selected as a 'Young Global Leader' by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by a selection committee chaired by Queen Rania of Jordan.
Life and career
Molavi holds a Master's Degree in Middle Eastern History and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, where he also studied Arabic. A former correspondent based in Dubai for Reuters news agency, in Tehran for The Washington Post, and in Riyadh as a business and economics writer for Arab News, Molavi has written on the Middle East, US regional policy, geo-economic trends, and globalization for various international publications.His articles and op-eds pieces have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, National Geographic, BusinessWeek, The New Republic, Foreign Policy, Institutional Investor, the Journal of Commerce, and The Wilson Quarterly. He wrote the 2007 National Geographic cover story on Dubai, titled "Sudden City." Molavi contributes to the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National.
Previously, Molavi worked at the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector development arm of the World Bank, where he managed civil society and media outreach for the Middle East/North Africa and Southern Europe/Central Asia regions.
As a fellow at the New America Foundation, Molavi studies the geopolitics and geo-economics of the Middle East and Asia, particularly the relationship between economic development and democratization. His current research interests include the economic implications of the Arab Spring and the "New Silk Road" and the growth of trade between the Middle East and Asia. Molavi’s work has also included research on economic development, globalization, and immigration policy.
He has discussed "The New Silk Road" at venues including a conference at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on China and the Persian Gulf region, a World Bank Seminar titled The East-East Corridor, in an article in The Washington Post titled "The New Silk Road", and in The National, where he wrote about "the meeting of West Asia and East Asia."
Molavi's analyses of the 2009 Iranian presidential election have been cited in the media. He has expressed support for the Iranian Constitution of 1906 and advocated for civil society support for Iranians seeking freedom.
Molavi supports Iranian American civic outreach programs, including the . He was a keynote speaker at a PAAIA event in 2012.