Trita Parsi (, born 21 July 1974) is the co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, as well as the founder and former president of the National Iranian American Council. He regularly writes articles and appears on TV to comment on foreign policy and is the author of Treacherous Alliance, A Single Roll of the Dice and Losing an Enemy. Early life and education Born in Behbahan, Iran, his father Dr. Touraj Parsi was a politically active university professor, at Jondi-Shapoor University of Ahvaz, who had been jailed twice, first by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and then following the Iranian Revolution by Ruhollah Khomeini, and Parsi moved with his family to Sweden at the age of four in order to escape the political repression in Iran. Parsi earned a master's degree in international relations at Uppsala University and a second master's degree in economics at Stockholm School of Economics. As an adult, Parsi moved to the United States and studied foreign policy at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, where he received his Ph.D. in International Relations under Francis Fukuyama. Career Early in his career Parsi worked for the Swedish Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, where he served in the Security Council, handling the affairs of Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan, and Western Sahara, and on the General Assembly's Third Committee, addressing human rights in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Iraq. In 2003, Parsi served as an aide to Representative Bob Ney. Parsi has served as an adjunct professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute and as a Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. Parsi is an Iranian-Swedish dual national and a permanent resident of the United States. He is fluent in Persian, English, and Swedish. Trita Parsi was awarded the 2016 Alumni of the Year prize from Uppsala University. National Iranian American Council In 2002, Parsi founded the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), whose stated purpose is "dedicated to strengthening the voice of Iranian-Americans and promoting greater understanding between the American and Iranian people. We accomplish our mission through expert research and analysis, civic and policy education, and community building." At NIAC's founding, Parsi argued "Our community is educated, affluent, dynamic, and professionally successful. However, we have yet to harness our immense human potential into