He is a distinguished French historian and scholar, specializing in contemporary Islam and modern history of the Arab Middle East and more precisely Iraq, and Syria.

Imen Chaanbi is an international consultant specializing in geopolitics and strategic intelligence, working with the firms 5WE Consulting and Strategik IA. A recognized expert on African dynamics and the Arab world, she supports large-scale projects in more than a dozen countries, from the Maghreb to the Gulf (Libya, Chad, Saudi Arabia, etc.).

A university lecturer and researcher specializing in Critical Discourse Analysis. 

Didier Leroy is an Assyriologist, Islamologist and sociologist by training. He is a researcher at the Institut royal supérieur de défense (IRSD) and a visiting expert at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium.

Chloé Berger has over ten years of experience in security and defence studies, academic programme design and capacity building in the MENA region. She is currently a research fellow at the belgium Centre d’études de sécurité et défense (CESD).

A graduate with a master’s degree in geopolitics from IFG, Lamia is an independent researcher focusing on the regions of North Africa and the Middle East. In particular, her work centers on the geopolitical, cultural, and social dynamics of Morocco.

Middle East Analyst, Journalist

Former Iraq director of the Oeuvre d’Orient, Chief of Staff to the President, Director of Public Affairs of the Order of Malta in France, graduate of the IEP of Bordeaux in international relations.

Edgar de Barbeyrac is an intern (Analyst) at the European Institute of Environmental Studies Middle East and North Africa (EISMENA). Specialized in security issues and defense, he focuses his research on the geopolitical stability of the MENA region an North Africa. Holder of a degree in Law and Political Science from the Faculty of Law the Catholic University of Lille, he is currently pursuing his studies within the same institution, in Master of International Relations (Faculty of Arts and Humanities). His academic background, focused on power dynamics and crisis management, he provides a solid legal and strategic basis. With a first experience in journalism, Edgar de Barbeyrac combines the abilities of rigorous synthesis to a keen sense of international news storytelling. Within EISMENA, it actively participates in the production of substantive analyses and in the monitoring of security files. His academic profile and emerging expertise allow her to provide a detailed look at the political and military developments in the theaters of operations contemporaries.

Maxime Lechat is an intern in analysis and translation on the MENA region at the European Institute for Middle East and North African Studies (EISMENA). Currently pursuing a Master 2 in Strategic Studies at Sorbonne University, she holds a degree in Law and Political Science from the University of Nantes. His final thesis focuses on the regional strategy of Iran. His areas of interest focus on the dynamics of the MENA region.  Maxime has previously gained a solid international experience within the GI-TOC (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime) organization where she collaborated with the Multilateral Engagement Team and the Central Asia Research Observatory. This course allowed him to acquire analytical rigor as well as a fine understanding of multilateral issues in the face of transnational threats. 

Bilingual in French and English, she is currently perfecting her Spanish and Arabic to deepen her analytical and research skills on local sources. 

This was created for experts and/or team members that preferred to be anonymous. EISMENA respects everyone’s privacy when safety is engaged. It is also used in case of common team works, or interviews.

Former intern at EISMENA, Student pursuing a Master’s degree in International Relations and Arabic Language (INALCO) and in Political Science (Sciences Po).

Former intern at EISMENA, she is a political science student in the dual French-German program between Sciences Po Aix and the University of Freiburg.

Senior Lecturer at Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA, Research Fellow at CERDAP2, Co-Director of the seminar (National Construction and Religions in the Mediterranean) at the Collège des Bernardins (Paris).

Binar FK is a recipient of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies Fellowship and holds a master’s degree in Global Affairs from the University of Notre Dame. His writing about  political and security affairs in the Middle East has been featured by the Stimson Center, New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, and the European Institute for Studies on the Middle East and North Africa.

Sherko Kirmanj is a distinguished scholar who has authored several notable works, including Identity and Nation in Iraq (published by Lynne Rienner), which has been translated into Arabic and Kurdish. His extensive body of work includes over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters published in prestigious international volumes. Kirmanj has held academic positions across multiple countries, including Australia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He currently holds an appointment as an Adjunct Professor at Koya University in the Kurdistan Region.

Nijdar Khalid is an economist and research fellow at the University of Duhok in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He received his PhD in Economics from the Institute of Economics at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen–Nuremberg (FAU), Germany. His research focuses on economic freedom, institutional economics, political economy, and economic development, with particular emphasis on institutional structures in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Originally a Business & Mandarin graduate, Alec Barcenilla is a pluri-lingual researcher specialized in North Africa geopolitics, development and humanitarian affairs. He has worked in North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe across academia, NGOs and government (including the Cooperation Office at the Embassy of Spain in Morocco).

François LaRochelle is a former Canadian diplomat who served in the Middle East. He is currently a fellow at the Montreal Institute of International Studies at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQÀM)

Lucie Laroche, author of the book Mothers in Search of Justice, published by L’Harmattan, recently graduated with a Master’s degree in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Studies from Sciences Po Grenoble, as well as a Master’s degree in International Security, Cybersecurity, and Defense from the Faculty of Law of Grenoble. She regularly publishes articles and analyses focusing on Turkey across various editorial platforms.

Karen Hekimian has a master’s degree in European and International Studies from the University of Trento and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the Lebanese American University. Her research expertise is in the Middle East and the South Caucasus, with a focus on foreign policy, and conflict analysis, as well as refugee issues, integration, and European Union policy.

Former Intern at EISMENA

Former Intern at EISMENA

Giulia Fournier is a PhD candidate at Cerdap2, a research center affiliated with Sciences Po Grenoble / Université Grenoble Alpes, and is part of the CPJ project “Geopolitics of Borders in the Middle East.” Her doctoral research focuses on transborder Kurdish ties.

Independent analyst, graduate in journalism and international relations.

Iraqi journalist. He has worked in local, Arab and foreign media, specializing in the writing of investigations, articles and analyses on security and political issues in Iraq, as well as his contributions to writing on humanitarian and environmental issues.

He has also worked on the implementation of projects to support activists and journalists in Iraq, Yemen and Mauritania.