Karim Sadjadpour

Karim Sadjadpour is an American policy analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Washington D.C. Previously, he was an analyst at the International Crisis Group. He contributes frequently to public affairs programs on television and podcasts, newpaper opinion pages, magazines, and U.S. Congressional hearings.

Sadjadpour was born to Iranian parents in Midland, Michigan, where he was raised. As a frequent newspaper reader in highschool, he developed a keen interest in international relations, and became an exchange student in Veracruz, Mexico. In college, he spent his junior year in Italy; after graduation, he travelled the world under an award from the Circumnavigation Club, followed by employment at the National Geographic.

Sadjadpour received a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Michigan, and an M.A. at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University.

Sadjadpour joined the Middle East and Nonproliferation programs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 2007 after four years as an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group where, as a fluent Farsi speaker based in Tehran, he had conducted interviews with hundreds of Iranian leaders, including senior officials, clerics, businessmen, intellectuals, dissidents and activists.

He has received a number of academic awards, including a Fulbright scholarship, and selection as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos. As a distinguished expert on Iran, he participated in Bilderberg Meetings in 2015 and 2018.

He has testified often before the U.S. Congress, and has made numerous Appearances on C-SPAN.

Sadjadpour published an extensive profile of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2008, and has contributed regularly to publications such as The Economist, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Foreign Affairs.

On television, he has appeared on NBC, MS Now, CNBC, CNN, PBS, Bloomberg, and Al-Jazeera.