Huda Abuarquob is ALLMEP’s regional director in Palestine. She has years of experience in conflict resolution, NGO leadership, and social change education and activism, as well as a life-long commitment to building strong people-to-people Israeli-Palestinian relations. She is a well-known speaker on issues related to Middle East politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After studying conflict transformation and peace studies as a Fulbright scholar, she worked as an executive director, a program director, and an NGO consultant to several organizations in the U.S., Israel, and Palestine. She is a co-founder of the Center for Transformative Education (CTE) and has taught and trained hundreds of students in Israel and the U.S. She has long been an active leader in grassroots Palestinian initiatives focused on women’s empowerment and people-to-people diplomacy. Previously, she worked as a teacher, trainer, and consultant for the Palestinian Ministry of Education for fifteen years.

Prof. Joseph Bahout is the Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon, where he is also Associate Professor of Practice in Political Studies. Prior to that, he has been a Non-Resident Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Middle East Program, Professor of Middle East Politics at Sciences Po Paris, and Permanent Consultant for the Policy Planning Unit (CAPS) at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also served as Professor at Université Saint-Joseph in Lebanon (USJ), as researcher at the Centre d’études et de recherches sur le Moyen-Orient contemporain (CERMOC, now IFPO), and as Senior Fellow at Académie diplomatique internationale (ADI). Until lately, he was Associate Fellow with the Geneva Center for Security Policy, the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, and member of the Scientific Board of the Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO) that covers Beirut, Damascus, Jerusalem, Amman, and Irbil. He is currently a member of the Editorial Board of Revue Esprit, and of the Scientific Council of the Le Rubicon research and publications network. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Institut d’études politiques de Paris (IEP, Sciences-Po Paris), and is the author of two books, on Syria’s business community and its political outlook, and on Lebanon’s political reconstruction, in addition to numerous articles and book chapters. He is a frequent commentator in European and Arab media.

Dr. Silvia Colombo is a Researcher and Faculty Advisor at the NATO Defense College in Rome. She is also an Associate Fellow in the Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa program at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI). Her research focuses on contemporary politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the EU and US foreign policy towards the Middle East and their role in conflicts in this region as well as the implications for NATO. Among her research interests are the relations between the EU and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). She has published various monographs, peer-reviewed articles, edited books, book chapters and numerous research papers and commentaries. She has given lectures and seminars in the fields of comparative politics and international relations of the MENA in several academic institutions as well as has organized and participated in policy workshops and conferences both in Europe and in the MENA countries. She has pursued extensive fieldwork in the MENA region and speaks Arabic fluently. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Politics from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa in London.

Dr. Ehud Eiran is a Senior Lecturer of International Relations at the University of Haifa and a Board Member at Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies. He was a Visiting Scholar at the department of Political Science at Stanford University, an affiliate of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford and an Israel Institute Visiting Professor of Israel Studies at UC Berkeley. Previously, he held research appointments at Harvard Law School, Harvard’s Kennedy School, and at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University and was a visiting lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to academia, he held several positions in the Israeli civil service including as Assistant to the Prime Minister’s Foreign Policy Advisor. He is the author of two books and some fifty scholarly articles, book chapters, and policy briefs. His research interests include spatial, technological, and legal aspects of international conflict (mostly in the Arab-Israeli context), negotiation and conflict resolution, and maritime strategy.

Dr. Nimrod Goren is a Co-Founder of Diplomeds – The Council for Mediterranean Diplomacy, and the President and Founder of Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies. He is a member of President Isaac Herzog’s Israeli Climate Forum, teaches Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is a Faculty Affiliate at Syracuse University’s Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC). He holds a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern Studies and Political Psychology from the Hebrew University and was a Hubert Humphrey Fellow (Fulbright Scholar) at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is the recipient of the Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East and the Centennial Medal of the Institute of International Education, and a former Visiting Fellow at J Street. He was also named a Vamik Volkan Scholar by the International Dialogue Initiative and is a member of the Global Diplomacy Lab. He has initiated, led and participated in multiple regional track-II and policy dialogue initiatives, both at the policy and grassroots levels. He serves on the board of The Center for Enterprising Citizens and on the steering committees of the Geneva Initiative and the Turkish-Israeli Civil Society Forum. His areas of expertise – on which he regularly comments in the media – include diplomacy, regional cooperation and peacemaking, with a focus on Israel’s foreign policy.

Amb. (ret.) Michael Harari is a Policy Fellow at Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, a lecturer at the Political Science Department at the Yezreel Valley College, and a consultant for energy, strategy, cultural diplomacy and policy planning. At Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he served in Cairo and London, was Ambassador to Cyprus (2010-2015), Head of the International Division at the Center for Political Research, Deputy Head of the Policy Planning Division and Director of a department dealing with the Palestinians and Jordan. Amb. (ret.) Harari is a frequent media commentator on Israel;s regional relations and on issues related to energy in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Amb. (ret.) Mohammed Loulichki is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) in Morocco, and an Affiliate Professor at the Faculty of Governance, Economic and Social Sciences of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), where he focuses on diplomacy, conflict resolution and human rights. He has an extensive experience of 40 years in diplomacy and legal affairs. He assumed inter alia the functions of Head of the Department of Legal Affairs and Treaties in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Morocco, Ambassador in Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, Ambassador Coordinator with MINURSO, Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva and New York, as well as President of the United Nations Security Council. He was appointed President of the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the Security Council, President of the Working Group on Peace Keeping Operations, Vice-President and Facilitator of the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council, and President of the Morocco’s National Committee in charge of the follow-up on nuclear matters.

Amb. (ret.) Mithat Rende is a member of the Board of TSKB-Industrial Development Bank of Turkey. He served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Turkey to the OECD and assumed the Chairmanship of the Executive Committee of the OECD. Prior to his appointment, he held the position of Director General for Multilateral Economic Affairs at Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for global issues, G20, energy, climate and environment, and worked as Turkey’s Chief Climate Change Negotiator and member of the Turkish Nuclear Energy Commission. He was also the Chairman of the Trade and Transit Group of the Energy Charter and served as Turkey’s Ambassador to Qatar. Earlier in his career, he served at Turkey’s missions to NATO and the OSCE and at the embassies in Damascus, Rome, Sofia and London, and served as Deputy Permanent Representative of Turkey to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). He has lectured on diplomacy and negotiations and has published in various academic journals.

Amb. (ret.) Dr. Abderahman Salaheldin is a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs. He lectures at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic institute on Arab, Turkish and American affairs, participates in academic and policy-oriented seminars in American, European and Egyptian universities, and writes opinion articles in Arabic and English. Amb. Salaheldin worked for four decades as an Egyptian diplomat. Before his retirement in 2018, he served twice as the Assistant Foreign Minister for Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs, and as the Ambassador to Turkey and to the Czech Republic. He spent 17 years of his diplomatic career in the United States (Washington, New York, and San Francisco). Amb. Salaheldin obtained his Ph.D. in Political Science at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic on the “Egyptian foreign policy and the Arab spring: A Case study of Egyptian policy toward Turkey and Palestine”. Besides, he published his memoirs in Arabic about his time as the Ambassador to Turkey (2010-2013) and also wrote a chapter on Egyptian-Saudi-Turkish relations in the book “Aspiring Powers, Regional Rivals: Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the New Middle East” published in 2019 by the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C.

Prof. Ahmet Sözen is a Professor of Political Science and International Relations, at the Eastern Mediterranean University in Northern Cyprus. He is the founding Director of Cyprus Policy Center. During his PhD dissertation fieldwork – which was on the Cyprus inter-communal peace negotiations, he was granted one of the fifty 1997 Paul Harris Ambassadorial Peace Scholarships on International Conflict Resolution given on a world-wide competition by the International Rotary Foundation. Besides his university work, he was the founding Turkish Cypriot Co-Director of the UNDP funded program Cyprus 2015 which operated first under Interpeace and later became the first inter-communal think-tank called SeeD – Center for Sustainable Peace and Democratic Development. He also served as the Research Director of SeeD. He is also active on the policy and advocacy fronts. His experience over the last twenty years as a peace activist includes peacebuilding and democratization processes, participation in the official Turkish Cypriot negotiation team in the UN-led official peace negotiations in Cyprus, active involvement in second-track peace and democratization initiatives, trainings in conflict resolution, mediation and peacebuilding and policy recommendations design. He has published extensively on the Cyprus conflict, peace processes and Turkish foreign policy, and has given dozens of invited speeches on conflict resolution (including two TED talks), the Cyprus conflict and Turkish foreign policy in various countries. He frequently appears on both local and Turkish media, as well as international media, such as Al-Jazeera, Euronews and BBC, where he comments on world events.

Dr. Harry Tzimitras is the Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo – PRIO Cyprus Centre. In this capacity, he coordinates research and dialogue activities on the search for a political settlement to the island’s division. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. (Global Energy Center), and an Associate Professor of International Law and International Relations, specializing in energy security and geopolitics, the law of the sea, foreign policy, and the Eastern Mediterranean. He has published extensively on these subjects, and has previously held teaching and research positions at Istanbul Bilgi University, Koç University (Istanbul), the University of Cambridge and the Institute of International Relations in Athens. He holds a Ph.D. summa cum laude in International Law from the Panteion University of Athens and two post-docs from the University of Cambridge and the Institute of International Relations in Athens.

Dr. Yahia H. Zoubir is a Professor of International Studies and International Management, and the Director of Research in Geopolitics at KEDGE Business School, France. He has taught at multiple universities in the United States, China, Europe, India, Indonesia, South Korea, and the Middle East and North Africa. He is the author/editor of several books, notably North African Politics: Change and Continuity, co-edited with Gregory White, and The Politics of Algeria: Domestic Issues and International Relations. He is the author of dozens of articles in leading academic journals, such as the Journal of Contemporary China, Foreign Affairs, Third World Quarterly, Mediterranean Politics, International Affairs, Africa Spectrum, Journal of North African Studies, Democratization, Middle East Journal, Arab Studies Quarterly, Africa Today, and Middle East Policy. He is currently preparing the publication of an edited, 32-chapter volume, titled, The Routledge Companion to China and the Middle East and North Africa. His other publications include analytical articles in international newspapers, research articles the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion & Politics, and on think tanks’ websites.