Banafsheh Keynoush

Dr. Banafsheh Keynoush is a scholar of international affairs. An academic for over thirteen years, she has conducted fieldwork in the Middle East for two decades, including in Saudi Arabia and Iran, was a visiting scholar at Princeton University, and a visiting fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. The author of Saudi Arabia and Iran: Friends or Foes? (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), she is the editor and an author of Iran’s Interregional Dynamics in the Near East (New York: Peter Lang, 2021). Her other publications include articles published in academic journals, policy papers, and media reports. Keynoush is a fellow at the International Institute for Iranian Studies, a team member at the Carnegie-funded Sectarianism, Proxies and De-sectarianisation Project, a member of the Pacific Council, and Co-Chair of the Middle East Forum at the Commonwealth Club of California. In addition to her career in academia, her professional experiences include advisory, public affairs, and analytical work for government agencies, international organizations including the United Nations, policy centers, and private companies across a multitude of sectors. Prior to this, she was a consultant at the World Bank, the Swiss Academy for Development, and worked at The Asia Foundation. She received her Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and completed her coursework at The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.