Dr. Sanaei is an Associate Instructional Professor in the Masters in Computational Social Science program. He is a political scientist with a substantive interest in foreign policy and public opinion. His methodological interests include formal models, causal inference, Bayesian statistics, and applications of machine learning.  

One line of his research is on the domestic politics of asymmetric wars. These wars—which encompass most of the military engagements of the developed countries since the end of the Cold War—are characterized by a considerable imbalance of power between the two sides, such that if the strong side in any asymmetric war were fully committed to the war effort, it would have virtually assured victory. The issues that are at stake in these wars, however, are often not issues of great national interest to the strong side. Accordingly, domestic politics can have a pronounced effect in whether or not these wars are fought, how they are fought, and for how long they are fought.  

He also has an overarching interest in public opinion in the Middle East. Over the past few years, he has led multiple waves of public opinion surveys and has dedicated much of his research to advancing our understanding of the politics of the Middle East. A key focus of this research is developing new methods to for measuring ideological positions.