Is based at the Center for Conflict Studies at the Doha Institute, having previously been Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center (BDC), and professor of International Conflict Studies at the Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Q). He has served as an academic advisor at the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Washington, D.C., having taught International Conflict Resolution in several universities in the United States. He received a doctorate in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University in 2006.

Is a Professor of the Arabic Democratic Transition at the Department of International Affairs, Qatar University. Sadiki earned his PhD from the Australian National University and previously held positions at British universities: University of Exeter and Westminster University, in both of which he taught courses spanning international relations of the Arab world to Arab and Islamic culture. Sadiki is an authority on democratic transition and democracy, and particularly as it relates to the Arab world and the Arab Spring.

Director of the Centre d'Etudes sur l'Orient Contemporain (CEOC, “the Center for the Study of the Contemporary East”). He is professor of Political Sociology at the Université de Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle). In March of 2011, Ghalioun became the first President of the Syrian National Council, the body which brought together all factions of the Syrian opposition under one umbrella. He is widely published in both Arabic and French, and holds two doctoral degrees from France’s Sorbonne University: one in Humanities and a second in Political Sociology.

Is an Egyptian academic and researcher who completed her PhD at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University. Alabdallah’s work is focused on questions of social and political change in the Arab region, a topic in which she is widely published. Her books include (in Arabic): Mechanisms for Democratic Change in the Arab Homeland (1997) and The Future of Democracy in Egypt (2005).

Lebanese writer and scholar, and Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London. He left Lebanon in 1983 to Europe where he worked as a professor at the University of Paris VIII, and then a researcher at the Marc Bloch center in Berlin. He is the author of a number of books including The Clash of Barbarisms published in 15 languages and The Arabs and the Holocaust.

Editor of the Journal of International Studies and Director of the Center for International Studies at Baghdad University, Niama also chairs Strategic Studies at al-Bakr University and Regional Studies in Libya. He has authored numerous published works and studies in International Relations. Niama obtained his master's degree and his doctorate from the School of International and Strategic Policy at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

A Sudanese academic, holds a PhD in social science from the University of Frankfurt. His work on Sudanese public affairs is widely published.

The Director of Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. Barakat was previously the director of research at the Brookings Doha Center and a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy. Barakat has been widely published, and has over 25 years of professional experience working on issues of conflict management, humanitarian response, and post-conflict recovery and transition.

Is a Professor of Political Science at Kuwait University, where he was also the head of the Center for Strategic and Future Studies. Al Ghabra was also the founder and first President of the American University of Kuwait (2003-2006). Al Ghabra earned a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 1987. Outside of academia, he served as the Director of the Media Office of the Kuwait Embassy in Washington, DC. Al Ghabra is the author of Palestinians in Kuwait: the Family and the Politics of Survival (1988), which was selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice magazine in 1989. Al Ghabra is also the author of Kuwait: Dynamics of State and Society. Al Ghabra is also the author of works on American teaching methods in the Arab countries and on American-Kuwaiti relations. He is currently working on his sixth book, which covers the Arab-Israeli conflict. His memoirs appear in Arabic as An Unsafe Life (Saqi Books).

Tareq Ismael is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada and President of the International Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies at Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus. He is the author, co-author and editor of over twenty-five books on the Middle East, Iraq and the field of international studies. His most recent works include Middle East Politics Today: Government and Civil Society (2001), Turkey's Foreign Policy in the 21st Century (2003), and The Iraqi Predicament: People in the Quagmire of Power Politics (2004). Ismael is also the editor of the International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies and the Secretary General of the International Association of Middle Eastern Studies.

Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs and formerly the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General in Libya. He is also a member of the Strategic Board of Lebanon’s Universite Saint-Joseph; the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Palestine Studies; and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. Mitri has also been a cabinet member in four successive Lebanese governments, having been Minister of Environment; Minister of Administrative Development; Minister of Culture and Media; and Acting Foreign Minister. He has lectured in a number of universities in Lebanon, Europe and North America.

Director of the Gulf Studies Program at Qatar University's College of Arts and Sciences. Baabood completed MA degrees in Business Administration and International Relations in the UK, before completing a PhD in Political Economy.

Is a Professor of Political Science at Kuwait University who obtained his PhD at Exeter University in the United Kingdom. Al Najjar was a consultant to Kuwait’s Al Watan newspaper from 1975 to 1993 and later headed the Center for Strategic and Future Studies at Kuwait University (1999-2003), a period during which he was also a scholar with the Harvard University Human Rights Program. Al Najjar has been on several UN fact-finding missions across Asia, Africa and the Arab region. Al Najjar is widely known for his interest in systems of governance across the Gulf states and for his involvement in issues of human rights and civil society in the Middle East.

Received his PhD in Political Science from Rennes University in France in 1988, and his professorship in 2002. He has been a professor at the Lebanese University since 1992, and visiting professor at a number of French and Arab universities and research centers. He has published on international affairs in French and Arabic and is a political analyst in the French and Arab media.

Editor of the Journal of International Studies and Director of the Center for International Studies at Baghdad University, Niama also chairs Strategic Studies at al-Bakr University and Regional Studies in Libya. He has authored numerous published works and studies in International Relations. Niama obtained his master's degree and his doctorate from the School of International and Strategic Policy at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Olwan is a Professor of Law at Petra University in Amman, Jordan, where he is also the Dean. Olwan earned his PhD at the Universite Paris II in 1971. A native of Ramallah, where he studied up until secondary school, Olwan previously completed undergraduate and master’s degrees in Law from Alexandria University. Olwan has lectured at universities across the Arab region since that time, including at the University of Algiers, Jordan University and Kuwait University. He has also been a guest lecturer at various institutions across the wider world.

Mohammed Madani is a Professor of Constitutional Law at the University Mohamed V-Rabat. He holds a PhD in Constitutional Law from the University of Montpellier I (France). Professor Madani is the author of a book on Morocco’s political system entitled Le paysage politique marocain. He has also co-authored a book on social mobilization, L’action collective: de la mobilisation des ressources a la prise de parole and is co-editor of a 2011 volume on Moroccan constitutional reform, La nouvelle constitution marocaine a l’épreuve de la pratique.

Associate Researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. A Palestinian academic, his publications cover Zionism and Israel, the Palestinian Cause and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Muhareb earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Reading in the UK.

A Jordanian researcher, Hamarneh was Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Georgetown for nearly 15 years and has served as Chairman of the Board of Jordan Radio and Television Corporation as well as Chairman of Al Sijill monthly magazine. He is also a founding member of EuroMeSCo as well as the Arab Reform Initiative. Hamarneh received his MA and PhD from Georgetown University.

Professor of political science, at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science and the director of the Center for the Study of Developing Countries ,Cairo University, Guiza, Egypt.

Nizam Assaf is a Jordanian specialist in political science and civil society and human rights Expert. He is an Adjunct Lecturer at many Jordanian Universities. Since 2000, he has been the Director of the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies (ACHRS).