Language: English

Samia Nakhoul is an award-winning journalist and editor with more than three decades of experience covering the Middle East and North Africa. She is currently Global Foreign Policy Editor at Reuters. Nakhoul began her career reporting on the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s and has since covered major regional conflicts and milestones, including the 1990–91 Gulf War, the Egyptian Islamist insurgency, the first Palestinian–Israeli peace talks, and the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Her reporting has spanned pivotal moments such as the Arab Spring, the fall of four Arab presidents, the Syrian civil war, and the rise and fall of ISIS in Mosul. She has also produced notable investigative work, including a 1992 exposé on an Islamist “state-within-a-state” in Cairo’s Imbaba district, which prompted government action.

Nakhoul’s work has earned her numerous distinctions. She won Reuters’ Scoop of the Year in 2011 for breaking the news of Muammar Gaddafi’s capture and death, and her special report on the secret plan to take Tripoli was a Pulitzer finalist. She was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite by France in 2014, received the Reuters Baron Award in 2015, won Reuters’ Scoop of the Year again in 2020 for leading coverage of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, and became the 2021 laureate of the Women in News Editorial Leadership Award for the Arab region.

She holds a degree in international affairs.

Fikret Adaman is Professor of Economics at Boğaziçi University and a 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Senior Fellow.. He has been at Boğaziçi since 1993 and a full professor since 2001, and has served as Advisor to the Rector (2012–2016) and Chair of the Economics Department (2006–2007; 2009–2011).

His research spans ecological economics, political economy, alternative and solidarity economies, and social policy, with a focus on ecological conflicts, food systems, governance, and resistance to neoliberalism. His work connects environmental challenges with broader issues of inequality, institutional design, and social transformation.

Adaman has held numerous research and policy roles in Turkey and internationally, including affiliations with the Istanbul Policy Center, Director of UNSDSN-Turkey (2016–2019), and expert for the European Commission since 2009. He has also contributed to UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Unit in Turkey and held visiting positions at institutions such as the University of Bologna, the Institute of Social Studies (The Hague), UMass Amherst, Purdue, and the University of Utah.

Bridging academia and practice, he has advised governments and NGOs on social and environmental policy, sustainable development, and local governance, contributing to projects on poverty, agricultural reform, informal economies, climate adaptation, and labor systems.

He holds a B.A. and M.A. in Economics from Boğaziçi University and a Ph.D. from the University of Manchester.

Ibrahim Grada is a Libyan politician, diplomat, consultant, and writer. He currently serves as Executive Director of the International Institute for Libyan Studies and Research. He is also a member of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Advisory Committee, announced in February 2025. With a career spanning diplomacy, policy analysis, civil society, and public affairs, he has built extensive experience in international relations, socioeconomic analysis, governance, and human rights advocacy.

Grada previously served as Libya’s Ambassador to Sweden from 2014 to 2017. Before that, he served as Ambassador and Head of the Libyan Mission in Denmark from 2011 to 2014. He also worked as a Senior Adviser and Consultant with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), focusing on socioeconomic issues.

Alongside his diplomatic career, Grada has long been involved in Libyan political, civic, and rights-based initiatives. He has served as a member of the follow committee of the National Conference of the Libyan Opposition, president of the executive committee of the Libyan Tmazight Congress, and director of the Libyan Observatory for Democracy and Human Rights.

In addition to his institutional and diplomatic work, Grada is also a published freelance writer and journalist with a strong interest in developmental affairs, human rights, and international relations.

Assaad Al Achi is a Syrian economist and civil society activist. He is currently an independent energy consultant. Until May 2025, he was Director of Baytna, a civil society support organization that empowers Syrian civic actors through grants and capacity building.

Prior to his work in civil society, Al Achi spent more than a decade in the private sector. From 2003 to 2014, he worked for the American oil and gas company ConocoPhillips, where he served as a Senior Economist based in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Following the outbreak of the Syrian uprising, he became actively involved in the revolutionary movement. He joined the Syrian National Council in December 2011 and later helped establish the Assistance Coordination Unit of the Syrian Opposition Coalition in December 2012.

Al Achi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut and an MBA from INSEAD. He is currently based in Brussels, Belgium.

Driss El Yazami is a Moroccan human rights advocate, intellectual, and civil society leader known for his decades-long work in advancing human rights, transitional justice, and diaspora engagement. He has played a central role in shaping Morocco’s human rights landscape and contributing to broader debates on reform and reconciliation in the MENA region.

El Yazami currently serves as President of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) and he is a former chair of the Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Support of Human Rights Defenders. From 2011 to 2018, he was President of Morocco’s National Human Rights Council (CNDH), where he oversaw initiatives to strengthen rights protections, support transitional justice, and institutionalise dialogue between state institutions and civil society.

Earlier, he was a prominent member of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER), Morocco’s landmark truth and reconciliation body, as well as the Consultative Commission for the Revision of the Constitution in 2011.At the international level, he served as Secretary General of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and has been an active member of various global advocacy networks. He is also a strong advocate for recognising the role of Moroccan and Arab diasporas, promoting cultural diversity, and advancing migrant rights. 

In addition to his activism, El Yazami has coordinated and contributed to several published works on human rights and migrants’ history in France and Europe.

Dr. Ebtesam Al-Ketbi is the Founder and President of the Emirates Policy Center (EPC), one of the most influential think tanks in the Arab world, and a Professor of Political Science at the United Arab Emirates University. 

In recognition of her position as the leader of one of the Arab world’s most influential think tanks, in 2015, Dr. Al- Ketbi was appointed Consultative Commission Member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). In 2021, she was named Advisor to the Global Commission for Post-Pandemic Policy. In January 2023, Dr. Al-Ketbi was named an Advisory Board Member of T20 International. 

She is currently a Member of the Board of Directors of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, the Global Advisory Board of the Observer Research Foundation in India, the Advisory Council of the Middle East Institute in Washington, the International Advisory Board of the Italian Med-Or Foundation, and the Indo-Pacific Civil Society Forum (IPCSF), and a Global Member in the non-governmental “Trilateral Commission (Europe)”. 

Dr. Ebtesam al-Ketbi is a regular commentator on political events in the Gulf region in various Arab and foreign media outlets. She is the author of several books, including The UAE as A Middle Power: Strategies to Adapt to a Divided World Order (2025), The UAE’s Role in Empowering Religious Diplomacy (2023), The UAE Power Building Model: Mohamed bin Zayed’s Vision (2022), and Iran and the Biden Administration: A Potential Return to Negotiations (2021). In 2018, the Arabian Business magazine featured her among the 50 Most Influential Women in the Arab world and in 2019, Dr. Al-Ketbi received the Women Super Achiever Award during the World Women Leadership Congress.

Lina Khatib is an associate fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House and visiting scholar with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. 

She is a leading expert on Middle East geopolitics, security, and international affairs. She is a prolific writer published in TIME, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs and a frequent media commentator on current affairs on the BBC and CNN. Her latest policy paper is titled The Degradation of Iran’s Proxy Model, published by the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School (April 2026).

Fathali M. Moghaddam is an award-winning professor of psychology at Georgetown University, and Editor of the Cambridge University Press Progressive Psychology Book Series. 

He previously worked for the United Nations and at McGill University. He has published extensively on intergroup relations, the psychology of democracy and dictatorship, and subjective justice. 

His most recent books include: Political plasticity (2023), The Psychology of Assimilation, Multiculturalism, and Omniculturalism (2024), The Psychology of Revolution (2024), Collective Irrationality (2025), and The New Immigration Challenge: A Psychological Exploration Toward Solutions (with M. Hendricks & R. Salas Schweikart,  2026).