Bio
Esfandyar Batmanghelidj is Adjunct Professor at SAIS Europe
CEO, Bourse & Bazaar Foundation
Esfandyar Batmanghelidj is the founder and CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, a think tank focused on economic diplomacy, economic development, and economic justice in the Middle East and Central Asia. He has published peer reviewed research on Iranian political economy, social history, and public health, as well as commentary on Iranian politics and economics. Batmanghelidj has also conducted extensive research on sanctions effects and is a core member of the Advancing Humanitarianism through Sanctions Refinement (AHSR) initiative. He was previously a core member of a two-year project titled “When Money Can’t Buy Food and Medicine: Banking Challenges in the International Trade of Vital Goods and their Humanitarian Impact in Sanctioned Jurisdictions,” which was funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies. He is a council member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Growth for the term of 2023-2024. From 2021-2022, Esfandyar was a visiting fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. From 2018-2020, he was a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, writing on Middle East politics and economics. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and Middle Eastern studies from Columbia University and an executive master’s in public administration from the London School of Economics. For a recent curriculum vitae including a full list of publications,
see personal website.
Courses
- Sanctions and Their Effects
Sanctions and similar forms of economic coercion have become measures of first resort for policymakers around the world. But the effects of sanctions on targeted states and societies remain little studied and poorly understood. This course examines the effects of sanctions at multiple levels of analysis, using frameworks from political science, economics, sociology, and anthropology alongside empirical evidence from a wide range of recent sanctions cases, including Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela. In the first half of the course, students explore how sanctions effect economic systems, sectors, firms, households, and, ultimately, individuals. In the second half of the course, students examine the political and social effects of economic coercion, building up from the individual to the body politic. Alongside weekly lectures, a portion of class time is devoted to a collaborative research project in which the class conducts its own assessment of sanctions effects using a case study approach. In this way, the course equips students with the theoretical and practical insights needed to account for sanctions effects when setting strategies or policies, whether in government, the private sector, or non-governmental organizations. This course will also empower students who wish to advocate for those harmed by the unintended effects of sanctions.
