Mohammad Ataie

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Mohammad Ataie is a lecturer in History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Previously, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at Brandeis University in the Crown Center for Middle East Studies.

His research explores the intersection between revolutions, transnationalism, and Muslim clerical networks, with a focus on the global impact of the Iran 1978-79 revolution. Currently, he is working on his book manuscript, 'Clerics In Revolt: Exporting the Iranian Revolution and the Transnationalization of the Revolutionary Guards,'  which brings together exclusive oral histories and research into public and private archives in Iran and Lebanon. It explores how Iranian revolutionaries were inspired by the ideas and movements of the global 1970s, how they sought after 1979 to spread the revolution through clerical activities and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and why their pursuit of establishing an Islamist international failed by the end of 1980s.

Ataie earned his BA in journalism from Tehran University, his first MA in Sociology from Allameh-Tabatabie University, and a second MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the American University of Beirut. He received his PhD in history from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Ataie has a background in journalism and documentary film making in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Syria. Prior to his PhD training, he was a diplomatic correspondent at the United Nations. His work has appeared in Foreign Policy, The Guardian, LobeLog, Middle East Policy, Irna, Sahrq-Daily, Diplomacy-e Irani, Syria Comment, al-Hayat, and the periodical of the Institute of Energy Economics in Japan.

“Exporting the Iranian Revolution: Ecumenical Clerics in Lebanon.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 53, no. 4 (2021): 672–90.

“Brothers, Comrades, and the Quest for the Islamist International: The First Gathering of Liberation Movements in Revolutionary Iran,” in Sune Haugbolle and Rasmus Elling, eds. The Fate of Third Worldism in the Middle East: Iran, Palestine and Beyond (London: Oneworld Academic, 2024).

“Order and Disorder: The Politics of Seminaries in Iran,” Middle East Briefs, No 157, February 2024.

“Becoming Hezbollah: The Party’s Evolution and Changing Roles, A Conversation with Mohammad Ataie,” Crown Conversations, January 2023

“Continuity Despite Revolution: Iran’s Support for Non-State Actors,” Middle East Briefs, No 141, May 2021.

“Revolutionary Iran's 1979 Endeavor in Lebanon," Middle East Policy, Volume 20, Issue 2, 137–157.

“How Iran’s 1979 Revolution Affected Sunni Islamists in the Middle East,” LSE’s Middle East Centre Blog, April 2021

“Trump’s Maximum Failure and Iran’s Evolving Strategy in the Region,” JIME Center, the Institute of Energy Economics of Japan, April 2020

“Is Iran Abnormal?,” Lobelog, 09 September 2019

“Trump's Sectarian Strategy Will Bring Iran and Hamas Closer,” Middle East Policy, 10 June 2017

“Mohammad Nassif: The Shadow Man of the Syria-Iran Axis,”SyriaComment, 16 July 2015

“The Iran-Syria Alliance: Sectarianism or Realpolitik?,”SyriaComment, 14 June 2015

“Iran is trying to broker a political solution in Syria,” The Guardian, 26 June 2012

“How Does Iran View the West’s Approach to Syria?,”InsideIran.org,  06 July  2012

“The Hamas-Syrian Split, a Dilemma for Iran’s Palestinian Strategy,”SyriaComment, 13 May 2012

“Iran supports Assad, But Not at Any Cost,” Foreign Policy, 9 November 2011