Ambassador Seyed Hossein Mousavian, Moderated by Stephen Heintz
May 11, 2017
Seyed Hossein Mousavian is a Middle East Security and Nuclear Policy Specialist at the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is a former diplomat who served as Iran’s Ambassador to Germany (1990-1997), Head of the Foreign Relations Committee of Iran’s National Security Council (1997-2005), Spokesman for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the international community (2003-2005), Foreign Policy Advisor to the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (2005-2007), Vice President of the Center for Strategic Research for International Affairs (2005-2009), General Director of Foreign Ministry for West Europe (1987-1990), Chief of Parliament Administration (1984-1986) and the editor in chief of the English-language international newspaper Tehran Times (1980-1990).
Mousavian is also the author of several publications, including Iran-Europe Relations: Challenges and Opportunities, Additional Protocol and Islamic Republic’s Strategy and Human Rights: Trends and Viewpoints. His book The Iranian Nuclear Crisis: A Memoir was published by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in June 2012. His latest book, Iran and the United States: An Insider’s View on the Failed Past and the Road to Peace was published by Bloomsbury Publishers in May 2014.
Mousavian earned a PhD in international relations from the University of Kent in the U.K. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Tehran and studied his bachelor at the University of California, Sacramento.
Stephen Heintz is president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Before joining the RBF, he held top leadership positions in both the nonprofit and public sectors. Most recently, he was founding president of Dēmos, a public policy research and advocacy organization working to enhance the vitality of American democracy and promote more broadly shared prosperity. Prior to founding Dēmos, he served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the EastWest Institute, where he worked on issues of economic reform, civil society development, and international security. Based in Prague, Czech Republic, from 1990 through 1997, he worked extensively throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States. He devoted the first 15 years of his career to politics and government service in the State of Connecticut, where he served as commissioner of economic development and commissioner of social welfare. In 1988, he helped draft and secure passage by Congress of “The Family Support Act,” the first major effort to reform the nation’s welfare system.
He currently serves on the boards of the EastWest Institute, the Rockefeller Archive Center, and The American Prospect. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Nonprofit Times has consistently named him one of the 50 most influential leaders of the nonprofit sector. In 2013, President Bronisław Komorowski of Poland granted him the Officer’s Cross – Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for his contributions to building civil society and democratic institutions in Poland.
