Dr. Brenda Shaffer is a faculty member at the University of Haifa.  She is also a visiting professor at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy.  Dr. Shaffer is the President of the Foreign Policy Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA).  She previously served as the Research Director of the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard University and was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.  Her research focuses on  the Caucasus, Central Asia, the link between culture and foreign policy, collective identity and politics, and energy and politics.  Dr. Shaffer takes a special interest in Caspian energy issues, ethnic politics in Iran, and the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict.  Her most recent publication is the book, Energy Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).  Dr. Shaffer is the editor of the book Limits of Culture: Islam and Foreign Policy (MIT Press, 2006).  She is also the author of Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity (MIT Press, 2002) which was formally recognized by the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences in 2004.  Dr. Shaffer has also published Partners in Need: Russian-Iranian Strategic Cooperation and Relations (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2001).  Dr. Shaffer's op-eds have appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, the International Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor and the Boston Globe.  She is a frequent commentator on Central Asia and the Caucasus in international media outlets, including CNN, Fox News, and BBC radio.  Dr. Shaffer serves as a lecturer and consultant on the Caspian region to a number of  public organizations, governments and regional security organizations, including NATO and the OSCE.  She has also given Congressional testimony on US policy in the Caspian region. 

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