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| Born | United States |
| Occupation | Writer |
Dr. Brenda Shaffer is an American controversial writer. She is currently a research fellow at Harvard University, before that she had been educated in Israel. Her main research interests include: Caspian region, Iran, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Turkey, the Azerbaijanis in Iran, ethnic politics and regime stability in Iran, the connections and influences between the Azeris in Iran and those of the Republic of Azerbaijan, energy, the U.S. policy in the Caspian region .
Biography
Dr. Shaffer received her Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University and has worked for a number of years as a researcher and policy analyst for the Government of Israel; and served in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). She reads a number of languages, including Turkish, Azerbaijani, Russian, and Hebrew.
Dr. Shaffer was a postdoctoral fellow (a temporary research position held by anyone who has completed his/her doctoral studies) at the International Security Program of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. She was the former Research Director of the Caspian Studies Project at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
- 2001-2004 Post-doctoral Fellow, “Young Truman Scholar” three-year fellowship in the field of Middle East Studies, Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).
- 2000-2001 Post-doctoral Fellow, International Relations & Middle East Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).
- 1999-2005 Post-doctoral Fellow, International Security Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (USA).
- 1996-1999 Ph. D. School of History, Tel Aviv University (Israel). Dissertation topic: “The Formation of Azerbaijani Collective Identity: in Light of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Soviet Breakup.”
- 1986-1989 MA in Political Science (with specialization in Russian Studies)' Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). (MA thesis topic: “Soviet Power Projection— the View of the Military”).
- 1983-1986 BA in Political Science and International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).
Reviews and Criticism
By Professor Camron Michael Amin
According to Camron Michael Amin, "Shaffer has captured the complicated cultural trends in modern Azerbaijani society on both sides of the Araz and offered an excellent framework in which to interpret those trends. And, as is the case with all the best pioneering efforts, she has also created a promising point of departure for further inquiry". Amin herself admits:" Indeed, Shaffer's effort to forge a coherent modern history of the Azerbaijani people is especially impressive when one considers the absence of certain source"
By Professor Touraj Atabaki
Dr. Atabaki (a Professor of International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Netherlands) strongly criticises the book, Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity, for its lack of academic values and its unbalanced and sometimes even biased political appraisal. Atabaki also criticises Shaffer for her vivid shortcomings in the methodology, and her lack of academic accuracy in the data she offers.
Atabaki in his review says “With Brenda Shaffer's Borders and Brethren one would expect a contribution to our understanding of future developments in Iran as well as in the neighboring countries. Within the first two chapters, however, the reader becomes disappointed with the unbalanced and sometimes even biased political appraisal that not only dominates the author's methodology but also shapes her selective amnesia in recalling historical data." Atabaki concludes his review by stating "Borders and Brethren is an excellent example of how a political agenda can dehistoricize and decontextualize history".
Harpers Magazine
Ken Silverstein, of the prestigious Harpers Magazine, in an article titled "Academics for Hire", comments:
Harvard's program is led by Brenda Shaffer, who is so eager to back regimes in the region that she makes Starr look like a dissident. A 2001 brief she wrote, “U.S. Policy toward the Caspian Region: Recommendations for the Bush Administration,” commended Bush for “intensified U.S. activity in the region, and the recognition of the importance of the area to the pursuit of U.S. national interests.” Shaffer has also called on Congress to overturn Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which was passed in 1992 and bars direct aid to the Azeri government. The law has not yet been repealed, but the Bush Administration has been waiving it since 2002, as a payoff for Azeri support in the “war on terrorism.” Harvard's Caspian Studies Program receives a lot of money from both the oil companies and from some of the governments.” I share Starr's concerns here, and since I briefly mentioned Harvard in my original story, and since several readers asked for more details, let me provide it here. As I had previously reported, the Caspian Studies Program (CSP) was launched in 1999 with a $1 million grant from the United States‒Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (USACC) and a consortium of companies led by ExxonMobil and Chevron. The program's other funders include Amerada Hess Corporation, ConocoPhillips, Unocal, and Glencore International...
By The Journal for International Security Affairs
According to James C. MacDougall, Principal Director for Eurasia, Office of International Security Policy, Department of Defense in The Journal for International Security Affairs, “By examining Azerbaijani identity in the context of Iranian domestic and inter-ethnic relations, Borders and Brethren makes a valuable con¬tribution to both the academic and the practical debate on the historical importance and future significance of this identity”.
Ralph E. Luker
The American historian Ralph E. Luker echoes Silversteins article, saying:
Silverstein's second article also implicates Harvard historian Brenda Shaffer, who is research director of the University's Caspian Studies Program, in similar apologias. These programs appear to be largely funded by regional regimes, American oil and industrial investors in the region, and right-wing foundations in the United States.
By Professor Evan Siegel
Evan Siegel (a Professor of New Jersey City University) in his review of Shaffers book, Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity, states "The book suffers from some general weaknesses. Its author is prone to make plausible generalizations which, however, are underdocumented when they are documented at all. At one point she claims, in the second half of the nineteenth century, some Azerbaijanis espoused Pan-Islamic ideology, and many of the supporters of Pan-Islam identified with Iran at this time. In addition, many Azerbaijanis were interested in their Turkic identity in a cultural sense, but few supported political unity with other Turkic peoples. The source she cites for this says nothing of the sort."
Evan Siegel strongly criticizes the book for being full of mistakes, inaccuracies, misinterpretation, and misquoting of sources and the book's failure to provide documentations to support Shaffer’s observations.
In conclusion Evan Siegel adds "Brethren and Borders is a highly political book on an emotional subject which needs careful, dispassionate analysis. Its chapters on the historical background is full of inaccuracies. Its chapters on current events and trends include a few interesting observations which don’t appear in the literature, but most of it is readily available elsewhere."
By Professor Ronald Grigor Suny
A citation on her own web-page is claimed to be from Ronald Grigor Suny. But there is no link to the original source, nor is it mentioned where the original source can be found. Ronald Grigor Suny, Professor of Political Science in the University of Chicago, allegedly in his review of Shaffers book, Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity, states that "one of the few works that looks seriously at Iranian Azerbaijan, Shaffer's book is a major contribution to the history of both Iranian and Soviet nationality policies."
Publications
Books
- Author of "Partners in Need: The Strategic Relationship of Russia and Iran" (the Washington Institute for Near East Policy).
- Author of "Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity" (MIT Press, 2002).
- Editor of "The Limits of Culture: Islam and Foreign Policy" (MIT Press, 2006).
Book chapters:
- “Iran’s Internal Azerbaijani Challenge: Implications for Policy in the Caucasus,” in Moshe Gammer (ed.), The Caucasus (London: Frank Cass, 2004).
- “U.S. Policy in the South Caucasus,” in Dov Lynch (ed.) The South Caucasus: a challenge for the EU (Chaillot Paper 65, EU ISS, December 2003).
- “Azerbaijan” in Waisman and Vasserman (ed.), Political Organizations in Central Asia and Azerbaijan: Sources and Documents (London: Frank Cass, 2003).
- “Azerbaycan Cumhuryetinin Kurulusu: Iran’daki Azeriler Uzerinde Etkisi”, in Emine Gursoy-Naskali and Erdal Sahin (eds.) Turk Cumhuriyetleri (Amsterdam/Istanbul, SOTA Publications, 2002)(in Turkish).
- “Postscript” in David Menashri (ed.), Central Asia Meets the Middle East (London: Frank Cass, 1998).
Articles, Papers, etc
Dr. Shaffer's articles have appeared in a number of newspapers and journals, including an article in Current History entitled “Is there a Muslim Foreign Policy?” and “Iran at the Nuclear Threshold” (Arms Control Today; November 2003). Her Opinion Editorials have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, and The Jerusalem Post.
See also
References
- http://bcsia.ksg.harvard.edu/person.cfm?program=CORE&item_id=312
- http://east-asia.haifa.ac.il/staff/bshaffer.htm
- Camron Michael Amin. "Review of Brenda Shaffer, Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity," H-Gender-MidEast, H-Net Reviews, August, 2003.
- http://www.azargoshnasp.net/recent_history/atoor/atabakishaffer.pdf
- Academics for Hire - Tuesday, May 30, 2006
- The Journal for International Security Affairs, NO. 5, Summer 2003
- [http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/25951.html History News Network
- http://www.azargoshnasp.net/recent_history/atoor/bookreviewsiegel.htm
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
- http://bcsia.ksg.harvard.edu/publication_list_by_person.cfm?item_id=312
External links
- John F. Kennedy School of Government
- The President and Fellows of Harvard College
- The ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan
- A Geopolitical Agenda; Dr. Kaveh Farrokh (See section 4c)
- The Nuclear Challenge 3/15/2005 video 23min (A panel of American and Israeli Scholars/experts discuss the rights and wrongs of Iran having a nuclear program).