Sanam Vakil is an Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna, Italy. She also taught as an assistant professor at SAIS in Washington, D.C., was a researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations and a consultant to the World Bank. Born in Tehran, Iran, Dr. Vakil has published commentaries in many papers, including the Financial Times and the Washington Quarterly. She has consulted on Middle Eastern affairs for BBC, CNN, NPR and ABC.