Dida Faridoon is a Kurdish journalist and documentary filmmaker from Iraq. She studied journalism in Germany and directing and screenwriting in Rome, Italy. Throughout her career, she has worked as a reporter, writer, and filmmaker for both local and international media outlets. Her work has been featured by prominent organizations and publications including Rudaw, Kurdistan TV, Zagros TV, Deutsche Welle, France 24, EISMENA, TAZ Zeitung , and Il Foglio, Ilmanifesto. Fluent in Kurdish, Arabic, English, German, and Persian, she has reported on major political, social and developments across Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. Her work consistently focuses on the human stories behind conflict, political change, and the ongoing challenges faced by marginalized and underrepresented communities. Her passion for filmmaking is to bring people together and connect them through her films by highlighting shared human experiences across cultural, political and social boundaries.

Alexandre Aoun is a franco-lebanese geopolitical analyst, has been covering the crises and conflicts in the Middle East for several years

Aamira Bibi holds an M.Phil. in Strategic Studies and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations. Her research interests include Middle Eastern geopolitics, regional security, nuclear deterrence, and traditional and non-traditional security threats. She currently works as an independent researcher, focusing on contemporary geopolitical and strategic developments.

Tehseen Fatima Syed is a Pakistani researcher, academic, and media professional specializing in International Relations, geopolitical affairs, peace and conflict studies, and regional as well as international security. She holds an M.Phil. in Peace and Conflict Studies from the National Defence University, Islamabad; an MS in Social Sciences from SZABIST, Islamabad; and an M.Sc. in Psychology from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. She has five years of teaching experience as a Lecturer in International Relations at Fazaia Bilquis College of Education for Women, PAF Nur Khan, Rawalpindi. She also has two years of research experience at the Institute for Strategic Studies, Research and Analysis (ISSRA), National Defence University. 

Her research interests encompass human security, violent extremism, Pakistan’s national security policy and threat perceptions, power politics, great-power rivalry, and strategic competition.

Tewfik Hamel is a doctor in military history and defense studies from the University of Montpellier Paul-Valéry.

Doctor in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Salamanca (Spain). He is a lecturer at the Université Lumière Lyon II (France) but also teaches at the Institut Libre des Relations Internationales et des Sciences Politiques – ILERI Nice (France). He is an associate researcher at the “Security and Geopolitics in the MENA Region” laboratory of the Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla – BUAP (Mexico)

Farhad Khosrokhavar is a Franco-Iranian sociologist and Director of Studies Emeritus at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. His research focuses on contemporary Iran, Islam in Europe, radicalisation and jihadism, as well as the social and political transformations of the Middle East. A widely published scholar, he has written extensively on the Iranian Revolution, political Islam, prisons and radicalisation, and the evolution of Iranian society.

Eszter Karácsony is a geopolitical researcher and Non-Resident Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) Middle East. Her work focuses on relations between the European Union and the Gulf states, including European foreign policy, diplomacy, trade and regional security. She previously worked at Institut Sapiens and the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri). She holds graduate degrees from the College of Europe, Sciences Po Strasbourg and the University of Strasbourg, and is a Raisina Young Fellow and Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leader.

Barah Mikaïl is a political scientist and specialist in international security and the geopolitics of the Middle East and North Africa. He is Associate Professor at Saint Louis University–Madrid, where he directs the M.A. in Political Science and Public Affairs. His research focuses on regional security, political transformations, international relations and the evolving role of state and non-state actors across the MENA region. He previously held research positions at FRIDE and the Institut de relations internationales et stratégiques (IRIS) in Paris.

Vali Nasr is an Iranian-American political scientist and the Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). A leading specialist on Iran, political Islam and Middle Eastern geopolitics, his research examines regional power dynamics, U.S. foreign policy and the role of religion in politics. He served as Dean of Johns Hopkins SAIS from 2012 to 2019 and previously advised the U.S. government on Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is the author of several influential books, including The Shia Revival and Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History.

A Palestinian political economist and full Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her research focuses on the Middle East and the Arab-Palestinian conflict.

Lova Rinel is an expert in geopolitics, governance and international security. Her journey between French institutions, international organizations and high Malagasy authorities led her to work on issues of power, sovereignty, democratic transition and security. In France, she participated in the work devoted to renewing the relationship between France and Africa. In Madagascar, she drafted the text abolishing the death penalty, adopted in 2014. Back in the country in 2026, a few weeks before the coup d’état, she was appointed special advisor to the Presidency to lead reforms in the areas of energy, governance, and strategic security. Former Commissioner of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), her current work focuses on power transformations, influence strategies, energy security, nuclear deterrence, and Africa’s geopolitical recompositions, of the Indian Ocean and the global South.

Olivier Lasmoles is a Professor of Law and Management Sciences at SKEMA Business School and the Academic Advisor for Defense and Security. His areas of expertise include maritime risks (maritime safety, human factor management), emerging risks (AI, blockchain, cybersecurity), and the geopolitics of Law. He is an operational reserve officer in the French Navy. He is a former auditor at IHEDN, a member of the AR11 Executive Committee, and a member of the Union-IHEDN Cybersecurity Permanent Study Committee. Finally, he is an associate researcher at LARGEPA (Paris Panthéon Assas University) and Research Center of the Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan Military Academy, and a member of the MBA Security Management jury for the National Gendarmerie.

David Rigoulet-Roze is a research fellow at EISMENA and l’Institut français d’analyse stratégique (IFAS), specializing in the Middle East and, more specifically, the Arabian Peninsula. He is also editor-in-chief for the Journal “Orients Stratégiques” at l’Harmattan.

Marie Ladier-Fouladi is a sociologist and demographer, and she serves as an Honorary Director of Research at the CNRS. The principal focus of her research throughout her academic career has been on Iran, particularly Iran following the rise to power of the Islamists in 1979.

Clément Therme is a lecturer at Sciences Po Paris and Paul Valéry University in Montpellier. He is also an associate member of CETOBAC at EHESS and a non-resident researcher at the International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah).

She is a distinguished sociologist renowned for her extensive research on issues related to migration, ethnicity, and gender, particularly focusing on Muslim communities in Europe. She is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick and holds associate researcher positions at several institutions in Paris, including the Collège d’études mondiales (MSH-Paris), CADIS-EHESS, and IFRI. She also serves as Vice-President at EISMENA.

Rony Brauman began working in international aid in the mid-1970s, serving as a ship’s doctor along West Africa’s coasts (1975–1978), followed by field missions in Benin, Djibouti, Asia, Africa, and Central America, particularly in armed conflict zones and refugee camps. As one of the earliest members of MSF, he was appointed President of Doctors Without Borders France, serving from 1982 to 1994. Under his leadership, the organization saw a tenfold increase in both budget and operations, and expanded significantly globally.

Thierry Vircoulon is an independent consultant and has been affiliated with Ifri since 2006. He coordinates Ifri’s Observatory on Central and Southern Africa and collaborates with the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (South Africa). For the past 20 years, his work has focused on conflicts, security, and governance issues in Africa. He is the author of several books on South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Associate Researcher at EISMENA since 2025, Carole Massalsky is pursuing a PhD in Geostrategy and Geopolitics at the Académie de Géopolitique de Paris, where her research focuses on relations between Iran and Iraq. More broadly, her work focuses on international relations and the geopolitics of the Middle East, with a particular interest in the interactions between the domestic and foreign policies of Iraq and Iran, as well as their regional implications.

Roxana Niknami, Professor of Regional Studies at University of Tehran & director of Center for Graduate International Studies of University of Tehran

Roxana Niknami is an Assistant Professor in European Studies at the University of Tehran and member of the Faculty of Law & Political Science. She is also director of the Center for Graduate International Studies of University of Tehran. Her areas of interest and research are in Geopolitics matters and her main research area is foreign policy.

Hamit Bozarslan is a distinguished historian and political scientist specializing in the sociology, history, and political dynamics of the Middle East—particularly Turkey and the Kurdish issue.

He is a French sociologist. He is renowned for his work on violence, terrorism, racism, social movements, and theories of social change. He was a student of Alain Touraine and has held several prominent academic and institutional positions. He is the current President of EISMENA.

Founder and current director of the European Institute for Studies on the Middle East and North Africa (EISMENA), he pays particular attention to Middle Eastern issues within the fields of the social sciences and geopolitics. He specializes in the five areas that make up the MENA region: the Arab, Turkish, Persian, Israeli, and Kurdish spheres. He has published several works, including his latest work, The Disintegration of the Middle East, has also just been released by Tallandier and focuses on the three major events that have impacted the region: 9/11, the Arab Spring, and October 7, 2023, or Iraq: A Century of Failure. From 1921 to the Present Day, published by Tallandier. 

He is a former diplomat, he served as Country Director for Libya at Expertise France between 2016-2021. Since 2023, he serves as Founder and Managing Director of SuperNovae, a French humanitarian NGO active in conflict zones such as Gaza, Libya, Sudan, Mayotte, Yemen. The objective is to provide aid to displaced women (and not only) through employment training, psychological support, child-focused programs, and awareness campaigns on gender-based violence.

Professor Emeritus at Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, researcher at CERDAP2, and associate researcher at EISMENA (Paris), IFEA (Istanbul), and FMES (Toulon). He is also part of EISMENA’s board committee as its secretary.