Karim Sadjadpour is an American policy analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Washington D.C. Previously, he was an analyst at the International Crisis Group. He is known for his expertise on Iran, and contributes frequently to public affairs programs on television and podcasts, newpaper opinion pages, magazines, and U.S. Congressional hearings.
Sadjadpour was born to Iranian parents in Midland, Michigan, where he was raised. As a frequent newspaper reader in highschool, he developed a keen interest in international relations, and became an exchange student in Veracruz, Mexico. In college, he spent his junior year in Italy; after graduation, he travelled the world under an award from the Circumnavigation Club, followed by employment at the National Geographic.
Sadjadpour graduated from Midland High School in 1995, received a B.A. at the University of Michigan, and an M.A. at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University.
Sadjadpour joined the Middle East and Nonproliferation programs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 2007 after four years as an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group where, as a fluent Farsi speaker based in Tehran, he had conducted interviews with hundreds of Iranian leaders, including senior officials, clerics, businessmen, intellectuals, dissidents, and activists.
He has received a number of awards, including selection as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, a Fulbright scholarship, an Emmy Award as a Consulting Producer for the HBO documentary Hostages by the National Television Academy in 2023, and writer of a best essay of 2024 and 2025 by Foreign Affairs. As a distinguished expert on Iran, he participated in the exclusive Bilderberg Meetings in 2015 and 2018.
He has testified often before the U.S. Congress, has made numerous presentations recorded on C-SPAN, and has lectured at Harvard, Stanford, and U.C.Berkeley. He has presented in meetings sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment, the Middle East Policy Council, the Washington Institute, the Cleveland Clinic, and the 92nd Street Y.
Sadjadpour published guidelines for approaching Iran in 2007, an extensive profile of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2008, and has contributed regularly to publications such as The Economist, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Foreign Affairs.
On television, he has appeared on NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox News, MS Now, CNBC, CNN, PBS, Bloomberg, and Al-Jazeera.
On radio, he has appeared on NPR's Throughline, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Fresh Air.
On podcasts and in interviews, he has appeared on The Rest is Politics, The Foreign Affairs Interview, Foreign Policy Live, Hugh Hewett, The Long Game, Call me Back Podcast - with Dan Senor, Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara, Slate, The World Unpacked, The Prof G Pod, The Common Good, The Council on Foreign Relations, and GZERO Media.
Karim Sadjadpour's parents left Iran prior to the Iranian Revolution. His father was a neurologist who emigrated from Iran to the United States in the 1950s, and his mother came to the United States in the 1960s. Sadjadpour has personally known Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi for decades and considers him a friend.
The table below lists Sadjadpour's publications, presentations, and interviews, organized by year. The publication date of item m'd is day d of month m. A reference to a list of items is replicated in each year for which the list contains an item, prefixed by an asterisk (""). A site listed in External links provides chronological access to a full database of his work from 2007 to the present.