Ali Massoud Ansari FRSE (Persian: علی مسعود انصاری, born 24 November 1967 in Rome^[1]) is a Professor in Modern History with reference to the Middle East at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where he is also the founding director of the Institute for Iranian Studies.^[2]

Ansari was educated at Col.Brown Cambridge School Dehara Dun, Royal Russell School, University College London (BA), King's College London (MA), and obtained his PhD from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

He is also an Associate Fellow at Chatham House and sits on the Governing Council of the British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS). He is a regular speaker at conferences and events regarding Iran, including "Iran's New Parliament" at the New America Foundation.^[3] His work appears in The Guardian,^[4] The Independent,^[5] and the New Statesman,^[6] among other publications.

In March 2016 Ansari was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's National Academy for science and letters.^[7]

Ansari is the son of Mariam Dariabegi and Mohammad Ali Massoud Ansari, cousin of Farah Pahlavi. He married Marjon Esfandiary in 2010, after which he had a celebration held at Chatham House.^[8]

• Iran, Islam and Democracy: the Politics of Managing Change (2000)
• Modern Iran Since 1921: the Pahlavis and After (2003)
• Confronting Iran: The Failure of American Foreign Policy and the Roots of Mistrust (2006)
• Iran Under Ahmadinejad (2008)
• The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran (2012)
• Iran: A Very Short Introduction (2014)
• Iran’s Constitutional Revolution of 1906 and Narratives of the Enlightenment (2016)
• Iran, Islam and Democracy: The Politics of Managing Change, 3rd Edition (2019)
• Iran (2024)