Middle East Strategy at Harvard

Michael A. Reynolds is an assistant professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He is currently a visiting scholar at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, where he is at work on a book on Ottoman-Russian relations and the struggle for mastery of Anatolia and the Caucasus in the twilight of empire.

His research interests include Ottoman history, Russian and Soviet history, comparative empire, international relations, and the Caucasus. At Princeton, where he is also a member of the Program in Russian and Eurasian Studies, the courses he teaches include Introduction to the Near East; Nation, State, and Empire: the Ottoman, Romanov, and Hapsburg Experience; War and Politics in the Modern Middle East; and Comparative Transformations in the Near East and Eurasia. He holds a BA in Government and Slavic Languages and Literature from Harvard, an MA in Political Science from Columbia, and a PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton.

In addition to his scholarly research and teaching, he has written for the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal Europe, and Asia Times, and has consulted for the Long-Term Strategy Group and for investment funds on energy and political risk in the Middle East and Eurasia. His next book project will examine Muslim intellectual critiques and social responses to state-led secularization in Turkey and the Soviet Union.