Jadaliyya Talks: Negar Razavi on The Systemic Problem of “Iran Expertise” in Washington

In the latest installment of Jadaliyya Talks, Negar Razavi sat down with Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya, Bassam Haddad, and human rights attorney and Co-Editor of Jadaliyya, Noura Erakat, to discuss her article "The Sytemic Problem of 'Iran Expertise' in Washington." In this interview, they discuss the article, go in-depth with Negar's methodology and findings of her study, as well as the huge online conversation the article initiated.

Her article can be found here.

Negar Razavi

Negar Razavi is a political anthropologist with a focus on critical security studies, expertise, gender, race, and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Her research specifically examines the role of policy experts and think tanks in shaping U.S. security policies towards Iran and Egypt. She received her PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and is teaching at William and Mary as a Visiting Assistant Professor in anthropology.

Noura Erakat

Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University, New Brunswick in the Department of Africana Studies and the Program in Criminal Justice. Her research interests include human rights law, humanitarian law, national security law, refugee law, social justice, and critical race theory. Noura is an editorial committee member of the Journal for Palestine Studies and a co-Founding Editor of Jadaliyya, an electronic magazine on the Middle East that combines scholarly expertise and local knowledge. She is the author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine.

Bassam Haddad

Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011). Bassam serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and the Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves on the Board of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and is Executive Producer of Status Audio Magazine. Twitter: @4Bassam.