Zaur Shiriyev is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

His research focuses on security, conflict-resolution and foreign-policy issues relating to the South Caucasus; energy security and supply routes across that region, southeastern Europe and Central Asia; and on Azerbaijani and Turkish foreign policy. 

For two decades he has worked in academia and think tanks. He has also actively taken part in expert-level meetings on the Azerbaijan-Armenia peace process.

For six years from early 2018 until March 2024, he was an analyst at the International Crisis Group, writing reports on conflicts and security issues in the South Caucasus. Before this (2015-2017) he was a resident Academy Fellow and then non-resident Academy Associate with the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Earlier he was a senior research fellow at ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan (2014-2017) and a leading research fellow at SAM, the government-affiliated Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Azerbaijan (2009-2014). He has also worked for the Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies in Istanbul and the International Strategic Research Organization in Ankara (2004-2008).

Zaur has published numerous articles and commentaries in reputable journals and magazines and has been quoted by the Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and other publications.

He co-edited The Geopolitical Scene of the Caucasus: A Decade of Perspectives (Istanbul, 2013), and co-edited as well as contributed a chapter to Energy Security and Geopolitics in Southeast Europe and Azerbaijan (Washington, DC, 2015).