Hooshang Amirahmadi

Hooshang Amirahmadi (; born May 24, 1947) is an Iranian American academic and political analyst of Talysh origin. Amirahmadi is a professor of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University and former director of its Center for Middle East Studies. He is also a Senior Associate Member at University of Oxford.

He is the founder and president of the American Iranian Council. He has stepped forward as a candidate for Iranian presidential elections in 2005, 2013 and 2017.

Early life Hooshang Amirahmadi was born in 1947 in the Talysh region to a landlord family. He is an ethnic Talysh. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in planning and international development from Cornell University.

Career Amirahmadi is the founder and president of American Iranian Council and is a professor of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. Amirahmadi is also a founder of the Center for Iranian Research and Analysis and served as its director for many years. Amirahmadi is also the president of Caspian Associates, Inc., an international strategic consulting firm headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey.

He is also a Senior Associate Member at University of Oxford.

Amirahmadi is a recognized expert on Iranian affairs, and has been called on to comment on this topic in national media.

Publications Amirahmadi has published extensively on the topic of Middle-Eastern relations. He is the author of Revolution and Economic Transition: The Iranian Experience, an analysis of post-revolutionary Iran, and the three other books in Persian on civil society, industrial policy, and geopolitics of energy. He is also editor of ten books on Iran and the Greater Middle East, and 16 conference proceedings on US-Iran relations.

Presidential candidacy He registered as a candidate for president in the Ninth Presidential Election in Iran in June 2005.

Amirahmadi was the presidential candidate of a reformist platform for the 2013 Iranian presidential elections.

Amirahmadi supported normalizing Iranian relations with the US, and using the opportunity for economic development. He supports gender equality and female career advancement. If elected, Amirahmadi's administration would have supported creating a coalition government in Syria.

On 21 May 2013, Iran's Guardian Council rejected him and many others from the list of approved candidates.

He announced his candidacy for the presidency for the third time in the 2017 election. His third bid was also rejected and he was disqualified.