Center for a New American Security

Amin Tarzi is the Director of Middle East Studies at the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia. In his position, Dr. Tarzi supports the MCU by providing a resident scholar with expertise in Middle East and South/Central Asia, representing the Marine Corps at various academic and professional forums, and providing expert advice for all Professional Military Education programs.

Prior to coming to the Marine Corps, Dr. Tarzi worked as a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty regional analyst, providing political analysis of the situation in the Greater Middle East.  While working for RFE/RL, he also taught courses in political Islam, cultural intelligence, terrorist organizations, and similar topics at the Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies.  Dr. Tarzi has also worked as the Senior Research Associate for the Middle East at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies.  His primary research emphasis was Iran and its missile and nuclear developments.  His work experience also includes the post of Political Advisor to the Saudi Arabian Mission at the United Nations and the position of Researcher/Analyst on Iranian affairs at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research in Abu Dhabi. 

In addition to his formal work, Dr. Tarzi participated for five years in a series of informal Track II meetings with civilian and military personalities from Iran, Israel, and several Arab states to discuss threat perceptions, security, and confidence building measures.  Through these meetings, Dr. Tarzi met extensively with academics and government officials from Iran, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and other regional states. 
Dr Tarzi earned his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees from the Department of Middle East Studies at New York University.