Marvin Zonis
Encyclopedia
Marvin Zonis is an American global political economist and expert on Middle Eastern politics and history and an emeritus professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
, where he continues to teach courses on International Political Economy
, Leadership
, and E-Commerce. He was the first professor at the Business School to teach a course on the effects of digital technologies on global business.
He was educated at Yale University
, the Harvard Business School
, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, where he received a PhD in political science, and the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis
, where he received training in psychoanalysis
.
Dr. Zonis also consults to corporations and professional asset management firms throughout the world, helping them to identify, assess, and manage their political risks in the changing global environment.
Dr. Zonis is a member of the Board of Directors of CNA Financial, the global insurance and financial services firm, and is also on the Board of Advisors of Syntek Capital, a European Private Equity
Venture Capital
Firm focusing on TMT (telecom, media and technology). He is a member of the Board of Advisers for the Comptroller General of the United States
at the GAO
and also a Fellow of PwC
-Diamond Advisory Services, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Fondation Etats Unis, Paris and the Board of Advisers of the Centre for Business Management, Queen Mary University of London.
Zonis has written extensively on globalization
, digital technologies, emerging markets
, Middle Eastern politics, the oil industry, Russia, and U.S. foreign policy. He is a leading authority on the Middle East, and has spent the last 50 years studying the volatile mix of Islam, terrorism
, and the Middle East. He has lived in Iran, hitchhiked through Afghanistan in the 1960s, studied Islam in Iraq beginning in 1964, and has travelled extensively throughout other parts of the region as well.
The Kimchi Matters:Global Business and Local Politics in a Crisis-Driven World
The East European Opportunity:The Complete Business Guide and Sourcebook 1992
Dr. Zonis and co-author Dwight Semler here outlined business opportunities in six Eastern European countries during the post-Soviet transition era. Designed to provide business travellers with a concise reference, this guide provides information on the geography, historical background, economy and present political status of Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
Majestic Failure:The Fall of the Shah
This is a psychoanalytic and historical portrait of the late Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980) whom Marvin Zonis knew personally. Zonis contends that as the Shah's core psychological relationships failed in the 1970s he regressed into his essential passivity and dependence, making him incapable of facing the challenge from the Iranian Revolution.
The main sources of the Shah's psychic support that maintained his psychic equilibrium were the admiration of his subjects, several friendships dating from childhood, a belief in special divine protection, and his alliance with the United States government.
The range of psychoanalytic interpretation in the book is wide-ranging and fine-grained; while one chapter examines his relationships with his father and mother, another looks at the Shah's obsessions with flying and heights, While he was much closer to his mother, the Shah only mentions her 12 times in the first volume of his autobiography while he references his father 784 times.
The Political Elite of Iran
Zonis' first published book is an examination of the political class of Iran up until the late Sixties. Zonis studied not only those who held formal office, but identified approximately three thousand people who exercised significant influence over the allocation of resources and values. He classified the ten percent of this group who exercised the most influence as his data universe. The interactions between the Shah and this group were then investigated. Zonis managed to interview a large cross section of this elite group. He concluded that the longer members of this elite group of 300 participated in the Shah's political system, the more likely they were to exhibit attributes of insecurity, cynicism, and mistrust.
Booth School of Business
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business is a graduate business school located in Chicago, Illinois, at the University of Chicago. Formerly known as the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Chicago Booth is the second oldest business school in the U.S., the first such school...
, where he continues to teach courses on International Political Economy
International political economy
International political economy , also known as global political economy, is an academic discipline within the social sciences that analyzes international relations in combination with political economy. As an interdisciplinary field it draws on many distinct academic schools, most notably ...
, Leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
, and E-Commerce. He was the first professor at the Business School to teach a course on the effects of digital technologies on global business.
He was educated at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, the Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, where he received a PhD in political science, and the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis
Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis
The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis is a center for psychoanalytic research, training, and education that is located on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. The institute provides professional training in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy...
, where he received training in psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
.
Dr. Zonis also consults to corporations and professional asset management firms throughout the world, helping them to identify, assess, and manage their political risks in the changing global environment.
Dr. Zonis is a member of the Board of Directors of CNA Financial, the global insurance and financial services firm, and is also on the Board of Advisors of Syntek Capital, a European Private Equity
Private equity
Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....
Venture Capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
Firm focusing on TMT (telecom, media and technology). He is a member of the Board of Advisers for the Comptroller General of the United States
Comptroller General of the United States
The Comptroller General of the United States is the director of the Government Accountability Office , a legislative branch agency established by Congress in 1921 to ensure the fiscal and managerial accountability of the federal government...
at the GAO
Gao
Gao is a town in eastern Mali on the River Niger lying ESE of Timbuktu. Situated on the left bank of the river at the junction with the Tilemsi valley, it is the capital of the Gao Region and had a population of 86,663 in 2009....
and also a Fellow of PwC
PwC
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....
-Diamond Advisory Services, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Fondation Etats Unis, Paris and the Board of Advisers of the Centre for Business Management, Queen Mary University of London.
Zonis has written extensively on globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
, digital technologies, emerging markets
Emerging markets
Emerging markets are nations with social or business activity in the process of rapid growth and industrialization. Based on data from 2006, there are around 28 emerging markets in the world . The economies of China and India are considered to be the largest...
, Middle Eastern politics, the oil industry, Russia, and U.S. foreign policy. He is a leading authority on the Middle East, and has spent the last 50 years studying the volatile mix of Islam, terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, and the Middle East. He has lived in Iran, hitchhiked through Afghanistan in the 1960s, studied Islam in Iraq beginning in 1964, and has travelled extensively throughout other parts of the region as well.
- Works or Publications
The Kimchi Matters:Global Business and Local Politics in a Crisis-Driven World
The East European Opportunity:The Complete Business Guide and Sourcebook 1992
Dr. Zonis and co-author Dwight Semler here outlined business opportunities in six Eastern European countries during the post-Soviet transition era. Designed to provide business travellers with a concise reference, this guide provides information on the geography, historical background, economy and present political status of Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
Majestic Failure:The Fall of the Shah
This is a psychoanalytic and historical portrait of the late Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980) whom Marvin Zonis knew personally. Zonis contends that as the Shah's core psychological relationships failed in the 1970s he regressed into his essential passivity and dependence, making him incapable of facing the challenge from the Iranian Revolution.
The main sources of the Shah's psychic support that maintained his psychic equilibrium were the admiration of his subjects, several friendships dating from childhood, a belief in special divine protection, and his alliance with the United States government.
The range of psychoanalytic interpretation in the book is wide-ranging and fine-grained; while one chapter examines his relationships with his father and mother, another looks at the Shah's obsessions with flying and heights, While he was much closer to his mother, the Shah only mentions her 12 times in the first volume of his autobiography while he references his father 784 times.
The Political Elite of Iran
Zonis' first published book is an examination of the political class of Iran up until the late Sixties. Zonis studied not only those who held formal office, but identified approximately three thousand people who exercised significant influence over the allocation of resources and values. He classified the ten percent of this group who exercised the most influence as his data universe. The interactions between the Shah and this group were then investigated. Zonis managed to interview a large cross section of this elite group. He concluded that the longer members of this elite group of 300 participated in the Shah's political system, the more likely they were to exhibit attributes of insecurity, cynicism, and mistrust.
External links
- http://www.MarvinZonis.com/
- http://www.kimchimatters.com/
- http://www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/bio.aspx?person_id=12826030080
- http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/busecon/busfac/Zonis.html
- http://www.diamondconsultants.com/PublicSite/people/team/?topic=Diamond%20Fellows&name=Marvin%20Zonis
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Management_%26_Technology_Consultants
- http://investor.cna.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=104503&p=irol-govhighlights
- http://www.agencyforspeakers.com/espeakers/3506/Marvin-Zonis.html