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Associate Professor, Associate Chair for Research

Dr. Afshon Ostovar is an Associate Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School. He also serves as the Associate Chair for Research of the NSA department. He held previous stints at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), Johns Hopkins University, and the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point.

Dr. Ostovar’s research focuses on strategy and war, with a focus on Iran and the Middle East. His latest book, Wars of Ambition: The United States, Iran, and the Struggle for the Middle East (Oxford University Press), explores the evolution of conflict in the Middle East from 9/11 to October 7. It is a sweeping account of the dynamic interaction between America's Middle East policies and those of ambitious regional states, and a powerful analysis of the conflicting visions of that have mired the region in seemingly endless conflict. It further explores how the contest for the Middle East has become a microcosm of a larger geopolitical battle between those aiming to preserve the American-led global order and those seeking to overturn it—especially, Iran, China, and Russia.

His first book, the award winning Vanguard of the Imam: Religion, Politics, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (Oxford University Press), examines the evolution of Iran’s most powerful armed force—the IRGC—and its rise to become a leading powerbroker within the Islamic Republic. The book is both a thematic history of the Islamic Republic and the first comprehensive history of the IRGC, from its pre-revolutionary roots and maturation during the Iran-Iraq War, to the expansion of its foreign influence following the Arab Spring.

Other publications include, “The Grand Strategy of Militant Clients: Iran’s Way of War,” which analyzes Iran’s reliance on militant clients since the 1979 revolution, and why working through proxies has become foundational to Tehran’s grand strategy. The article further evaluates the benefits and costs of this approach, and how it has both benefited Iran’s strategic aims while also keeping it vulnerable to unmanageable escalation. Another article, “Iran, its clients, and the future of the Middle East: the limits of religion,” looks at the flipside of that issue, and examines why nonstate actors choose to partner with Iran and accept its support. This article identifies the key conditions that isulate Iran’s relationships from external pressure, while also identifying how, when certain conditions are absent, Iran’s ties to its proxies can be susceptible to weakening and competition.

Dr. Ostovar is a contributor to War on the Rocks among other outlets, and his commentary regularly appears in popular media, such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. He earned a B.A., summa cum laude, in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan.