DARIOUSH BAYANDOR is currently an Iran analyst and historian living in Switzerland. Born Iranian, the author held diplomatic posts in New York and Tehran and was a lecturer on international law, diplomacy and international institutions in Tehran University, the National University of Tehran as well as in the diplomatic school of the foreign ministry prior to the Islamic Revolution. He joined the United Nations in 1980 where he notably headed several UN humanitarian offices in different continents, stretching over a twenty-year period.