Ray Takeyh

Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. His areas of specialization are Iran, political reform in the Middle East and Islamist movements and parties. He is also a contributing editor at The National Interest.

Takeyh was previously professor of national security studies at the National War College, professor and director of studies at the Near East and South Asia Center, National Defense University, fellow in international security studies at Yale University, fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California Berkeley.

Takeyh is the author of “Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic.” He is also the author of two previous books, “The Receding Shadow of the Prophet: The Rise and Fall of Radical Political Islam” (Praeger Publishers, 2004) and “The Origins of the Eisenhower Doctrine: The U.S., Britain and Nasser’s Egypt, 1953-1957” (MacMillan Press, 2000).

Ray Takeyh has published widely, including articles in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, Survival, World Policy Journal, Washington Quarterly, Orbis, Middle East Journal and Middle East Policy.

His commentaries have been featured in many newspapers, including the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times and the International Herald Tribune.

Ray Takeyh has testified frequently at various congressional committees and has appeared on Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Charlie Rose, NBC, CBS, CNN, BBC, FOX and CSPAN. He earned his doctorate in modern history from Oxford University in 1997.