Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh

Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh is a university professor, researcher and international consultant specializing in human security, the prevention of violent extremism, counterterrorism and peacebuilding, with regional expertise in Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran. She teaches graduate level courses on Human Security and on Understanding and Responding to Radicalization at the Paris School of International Affairs of Sciences Po. She has also taught at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and has been a visiting professor at universities in Tehran, Kabul, New Delhi, Pretoria, Moscow and Dushanbe.

From 2010 to 2016, she was a researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, focusing on regional security dynamics surrounding Afghanistan. Earlier, she founded the Center for Peace and Human Security at Sciences Po (2004–2008) and launched its first peer reviewed, student run publication, the Journal of Human Security.

Dr. Tadjbakhsh has also had an extensive career with the United Nations (UN). In the 1990s, she served on staff at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Since 2003, she has worked as a consultant for several UN entities, conducting training programmes, evaluations and strategic analyses on the prevention of violent extremism, peacebuilding and human security. Her clients have included the United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT), the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA), the Organization for Security and Co operation in Europe (OSCE), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN Women, and UNDP.