Peyman Asadzade is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and a visiting assistant professor of government and legal studies at Bowdoin College. A political scientist working on Iran and the broader Middle East, he studies state-society relations, development, and the domestic consequences of international pressure, with a particular focus on public opinion. Drawing on surveys, subnational data, and Persian–language sources, his work examines how US policy is experienced and understood inside Iranian society and why understanding that terrain is essential to crafting effective policy.

His research has appeared in Security Studies, The Nonproliferation Review, the Journal of Peace Research, International Studies Quarterly, Foreign Policy Analysis, and Conflict Management and Peace Science, where he received the Palmer Prize for best article. His policy writing has appeared in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Journal of Democracy, and the Washington Post.

Asadzade is also a non-resident research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, where he previously served as a postdoctoral fellow with the Middle East Initiative and Managing the Atom. He also served as a peace and security scholar at the US Institute of Peace.