Hossein Askari (economist)

Hossein Askari was born in Iran and received his elementary and secondary education in the United Kingdom. He then came to the United States where he earned his SB in Civil Engineering, attended the MIT Sloan School of Management, and received his PhD in Economics, all at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was an instructor at MIT, and started his academic career at the age of twenty-three as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Tufts University, becoming an Associate Professor at Wayne State University, and Professor of International Business and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin in 1978, before coming to George Washington University (GW) in 1982, where he has served as Chairman of the International Business Department and as Director of the Institute of Global Management and Research and is now the Iran Professor of International Business and Professor of International Affairs.

He served for two and a half years on the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund and was Special Advisor to the Minister of Finance of Saudi Arabia; in this capacity he frequently spoke for Saudi Arabia at the IMF Executive Board; he developed the idea for a special Quota increase for Saudi Arabia, giving Saudi Arabia an effective permanent seat on the Board; and he assisted in the negotiations of a $10 billion loan to the IMF. During the mid-1980s he directed an international team that developed the first comprehensive domestic, regional and international energy models and plan for Saudi Arabia. During 1990-1991 he was asked by the governments of Iran and Saudi Arabia to act as an intermediary to restore diplomatic relations; and in 1992 he was asked by the Emir of Kuwait to mediate with Iran. He has written on economic development in the Middle East, Islamic economics and finance, international trade and finance, agricultural economics, oil economics and on economic sanctions.