Meet the Team
Said Alahyane
Cadi Ayyad University Marrakech
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Mohamed Chtatou
International University of Rabat
Mohisne El-Ahmadi
Cadi Ayyad University Marrakech
Firas Habbal
Emirates Scholar Research Centre
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Aharon Ariel Lavi
Ohr Torah Stone Interfaith Centre
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Amos Nadan
Moshe Dayan Centre
Daniella Traub
Moshe Dayan Centre
Moran Zaga
Mohamed Alzarouni
Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy
Sercan Canbolat
University of Connecticut
Yitzhak Gal
Moshe Dayan Centre
Mujtaba Ali Isani
German Academic Exchange Service – DAAD
Itai Melchior
Atlantic Council
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Aviva Steinberger
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Nir Boms
Tel Aviv University
Marios Efthymiopoulos
Vytautas Magnus University
Felicity Ginsberg
IMPACT-se
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Michalis Kontos
University of Nicosia
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Chelsi Mueller
Emby-Riddle Aeronautical University
Gary Soleiman
Start Up Nation Central
Start Up Nation Central
Louis Tuchman
Junior Fellow-Forum for Regional Cooperation
Daniel Weiner
University of Connecticut
University of Haifa/Hebrew University
Said Alahyane
Said Alahyane is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the College of Law affiliated with Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh, Morocco, where he has been teaching and conducting research since 2019. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science in 2017 from Cadi Ayyad University, with a dissertation entitled Food Security and Agricultural Policy in Morocco. His research focuses on public policy, agricultural policy, food security and food sovereignty, as well as Moroccan–Israeli relations and the Abraham Accords.
Mohamed Alzarouni
An energy economist by training, I am currently a lecturer and researcher at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy. My research examines how locally embedded solutions can collectively drive national and global transitions. More recently, I have become interested in the growing role of energy diplomacy, and how it may foster cross-border cooperation and shaping emerging governance frameworks in sustainability and technology. I emphasise evidence-based analysis, clarity and adaptability in an attempt to bridge technical insights with policy relevance to advance a shared sustainable energy strategy.
Nir Boms
Dr. Boms received his doctorate from the University of Haifa. His dissertation analyzed the Influence of Information Technology on the Creation of Civic Society in Syria and Iran. He holds MA degrees in the fields of Political Science and Judaic Studies from the University of Maryland. He currently teaches at the Rothberg School of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Israel in a Changing Middle East) , in addition to Tel Aviv University . His 2016 book, Expat-ing Democracy (Peter Lang, 2016) deals with the influence of Expat communities on democracy discourse in the Middle East. His recent book, “The Syrian War: Between Justice and Political Reality” (Cambridge university Press, 2020) is an edited volume on the Syrian War (2011 – 2019). He is also the editor of Regional Cooperation in the Midst of Regional Conflagration: Examining the Partnership Agenda in the Shadow of October 7th,(KAS/Dayan, 2025), a publication on the status of regional partnership following the Gaza war. He also participated in the writing of “Copts in Egypt, A Christian Minority Under Siege” (G2W-Verlag, 2006) and “The Long March to the West” (Valentine Mitchell, 2007).
Amongst additional affiliations he is a fellow at the International Institute for Counter Terrorism at the Reichman University, Herzliya; a member of the board of the Israeli Council on Foreign Relations and the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education. He Co – Founded of CyberDissidents.org (now Movements.org) , a network of bloggers from the Middle East that focuses on freedom of expression and the promotion of dialogue in the region. Under the framework of his educational and peace endeavors, he co-founded the Tiyul-Rihla project, in 2012 , an initiative bringing Israelis and Palestinians together to travel and learn the history and identity of each other.
Mohamed Chtatou
Dr. Mohamed Chtatou is a Professor of education science at the university in Rabat. He is currently a political analyst with Moroccan, Gulf, French, Italian and British media on politics and culture in the Middle East, Islam and Islamism as well as terrorism. He is, also, a specialist on political Islam in the MENA region with interest in the roots of terrorism and religious extremism.
He teaches Community-Based Learning, Moroccan Jewish Heritage and Amazigh History and Culture to American students at Amideast/Morocco in Rabat, History of North Africa to IES (Chicago) semester abroad program students, and Introduction to Moroccan Culture and the Arab Spring to CIEE American students. He also teaches interpersonal and business communication as well as translation and interpreting at the Institute for Leadership and Communication Studies (ILCS) in Rabat, Morocco. Chtatou is a contributor to Fikra Forum.
Sercan Canbolat
Dr. Sercan Canbolat holds MA degrees in International Relations from Bilkent University (2014) and in Political Science from the University of Connecticut (2018), where he also earned his PhD in Political Science in 2023. A Fulbright alumnus, he is an Assistant Professor of Political Science in Residence and inaugural Director of Abrahamic Programs at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Canbolat is also a Research Fellow at the Leadership Analysis and Influence Operations Laboratory (LA/IO) at SUNY-Albany. Additionally, he serves as Director of Middle East and Turkey Affairs at Perim Media, a U.S.-based specialist content firm, and Associate Editor of Uluslararası İlişkiler Dergisi.
His research areas include political psychology, leadership profiling with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and visual approaches to international relations research and pedagogy. Dr. Canbolat’s scholarship bridges theory, method, and policy relevance, with particular emphasis on how leaders’ ideologies shape regional and international outcomes. His work appears in leading academic outlets such as International Studies Review, Political Research Quarterly, Polity, and Cambridge University Press. He is the recipient of several honors, including the 2018 Polity Prize for best article, the Margaret G. Hermann Award from ISA-Midwest in both 2020 and 2021, and the 2020 University Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award from the University of Connecticut. His recent co-authored book, Leaders in the Middle East and North Africa: How Ideology Shapes Foreign Policy (with Dr. Özgür Özdamar), received the 2023 Best Book in Foreign Policy Award from the International Studies Association.
Marios Efthymiopoulos
Dr Marios Panagiotis Efthymiopoulos is Professor of International Security at the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania. He is also heading Strategy International (SI) think tank in the Republic of Cyprus. Past academic positions include Head of Department of History, Politics and International Studies at Neapolis University Pafos, in Cyprus. Dean of the College of Security and Global Studies at the American University in the Emirates, Senior Researcher at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR), Abu Dhabi, UAE. The Harriman Institute, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University Center for Transatlantic Relations, George Washington University Business School, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, in Washington, D.C., USA, and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Cyprus. Past professional roles include serving on advisory boards and holding advisory positions in various countries related to international affairs, as well as professional experience in multiple companies and government institutions.
Professor Dr. Efthymiopoulos has been awarded his PhD from the University of Crete in Greece, as an Alexander S. Onassis Scholar on NATO and NATO Russia relations. Having also obtained NATO’s Defense College Diploma Senior Course 105, a master’s in advanced international studies from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Austria, and a BA(Hons) in International Relations and Politics from the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom. You may find his Academic ID among others, at: https://orcid.org//0000-0002-2277-0941 & Scopus ID: 36631803800. And his personal page on www.efthymiopoulos.gr
Mohsine El-Ahmadi
Dr. Mohsine El Ahmadi is a Senior professor of Political Sociology in the Faculty of Law at the Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakesh, Morocco, a position he has held since 1999. He earned his M.Phil., and Ph.D., at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. His master’s thesis was on “Political Program and Religious Ideology of Islamist Movements in Morocco”. His doctoral thesis was on “Islamism and Modernity in Post-Colonial Morocco”. Dr. El Ahmadi has published The Birth of the Arab Citizen and the Changing Middle East in 2016, with Stuart Schaar. He also published numerous review articles and Journals in France, Morocco, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, and Spain. In 2009-10, Dr. El Ahmadi was selected for a Fulbright scholarship at Georgetown University. In 2022, he has been selected for the Schusterman Summer Program at Brandeis University (Waltham, Boston (Massachusetts). In 2023 he has been awarded a second Fulbright scholarship to work at The Washington Institute for North Eastern Policy in Washington DC.
Yitzhak Gal
Yitzhak Gal (MBA, Tel Aviv University) is a researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies and a long-time researcher of Middle East economic issues. He has published dozens of articles and academic research papers, and has presented papers in conferences and workshops on topics such as the Palestinian economy and Israeli – Palestinian economic relations; the Arabian Gulf economies and markets; the Egyptian and Jordanian economies, among others. Gal is also a frequent lecturer on Middle East economic and business issues to Israeli public and professional audiences.
Gal consults on Middle Eastern economies and markets to public and business sector entities: Israeli government ministries and agencies, international organizations and NGOs; as well as international and Israeli companies in various fields of business. Gal has been involved, inter alia, in large economic research projects, strategic and business analyses in the Israeli–Palestinian and Israeli–Jordanian context, as well as the Arabian Gulf, Egypt, and the Middle East at large. Gal’s numerous consulting works have covered many fields of business: agriculture and water, energy (oil and gas, renewable energy), banking and insurance, transportation and logistics, industry (chemicals, food, textile, etc.), ICT, and more.
Felicity Ginsberg
Felicity has a BA in Classics and Arabic from the University of Oxford. Before joining IMPACT-se, she worked as the Senior External Affairs Officer for the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom & Commonwealth advising him on political engagement, interfaith, education, and social responsibility. She has brought this wide-ranging experience and knowledge of the fields of education, interfaith understanding, and coexistence to her current role at IMPACT-se. She is also currently studying for an MA in Government at Reichman University.
Firas Habbal
Dr Firas Habbal is the President of Emirates Scholar Center and Chief Executive Officer of Geminos Investment Group. His educational background includes a PhD in International Business Management, MSc in Project Management, and BSc in Internet Commerce. He is also member of multiple research committees and president of more than 15 scientific conferences in UAE.
Mujtaba Ali Isani
Prof. Dr. Mujtaba Isani is a DAAD Professor of Political Science and member of the Steering Committee at the Arab-German Young Academy (AGYA) at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of the Sciences (BBAW)
Michalis Kontos
Dr Michalis Kontos is an Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Governance of the University of Nicosia. He is the program coordinator of MA International Relations and Eastern Mediterranean Studies. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science (National and Kapodestrian University of Athens), a post-graduate Diploma in EU Development Policies (Panteion University and International Relations Institute, Athens), a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Strategic Studies (Panteion University, Athens) and a PhD in International Relations (Panteion University, Athens).
His research interests focus on international relations and strategic studies, with special focus on great power politics in the Eastern Mediterranean. He has also researched and published on European integration, Cyprus politics and international law. He has served as a member of the Geostrategic Council of the Republic of Cyprus. He is a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean Academic Network (BSEMAN). He is Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean Review (BSEMR). He is the author of monographs, chapters in edited volumes and articles published in international peer-reviewed journals, such as International Politics (Springer), Digests of Middle East Studies (Wiley) and South East European and Balkan Studies (Taylor&Francis). He has participated in many international conferences and has taught under Erasmus+ mobility schemes in the Universities of The Hague (Netherlands), Piraeus (Greece), and Salerno (Italy).
Rabbi Aharon Ariel Lavi is the Managing Director of the Ohr Torah Interfaith Center, which works with religious leaders worldwide to make religion part of the solution to global challenges. He was also the founder of Hakhel, the Jewish Intentional Communities Incubator in the Diaspora, and MAKOM, the Israeli national umbrella organization of intentional communities (both projects were awarded the Jerusalem Unity Prize by the President of Israel).
Lavi holds rabbinic semicha and academic degrees in Economics, Geography, History, and the Philosophy of Ideas. His PhD dissertation explored the migration of ideas between US Jewry and Israeli society. A 2024 Harvard Divinity School postdoctoral fellow, he continued to research Jewishly inspired community building at Bar-Ilan University’s Weisfeld Ma’ayan Institute in 2025. He is a published author on Jewish economic and environmental thought, community building, international religious affairs, and more. He also teaches Jewish economic thought and community building in academia.
Outside of his professional life, Lavi is an avid mountain biker, racer, trainer, and trail builder. He lives with his wife, Liat, and their five children in the community they founded together in Shuva, on the Gaza border.
Aharon Ariel Lavi
Itai Melchior
Itai Melchior is a nonresident senior fellow with the N7 Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs. Melchior is a former diplomat, civil servant, and business leader. He serves as vice president for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at Gold n’ Links Group, where he oversees artificial intelligence-driven cybersecurity solutions, information technology innovations, and data center projects.
Previously, Melchior served in the Office of the Israeli Prime Minister as deputy director of the Ministry of External Affairs and Special Liaisons Directorate within Israel’s National Security Council. He also served as the head of Europe Departments at the Foreign Trade Administration and as the head of exports at the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry. Additionally, he previously served as the head of Israel’s Trade Mission to Southern Africa at the Israeli embassy in South Africa.
Melchior holds an MBA from the University of Haifa. Melchior currently lives in Haifa. He has also lived and worked in Europe and Africa.
Chelsi Mueller
Chelsi Mueller is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Security Studies and International Affairs at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. She earned her Ph.D. in History from Tel Aviv University and serves as a non-resident research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. She is the author of Origins of the Arab-Iranian Conflict: Nationalism and Sovereignty in the Gulf between the World Wars (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Her research focuses on the Gulf in history, Arab-Iranian relations, Gulf security, the Iran-Israel conflict, and the evolving ties between Israel and the Gulf Arab states. She is the incoming co-editor of the journal Israel Affairs.
Amos Nadan
Prof. Amos Nadan, PhD (LSE, 2001) is the Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University, and a faculty member of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at the University.
His research focuses primarily on land-related issues and peasant history, economic history, and the practical application of historical knowledge to current debates, when relevant. Nadan frequently publishes his research in respected international peer-reviewed journals, including recent articles in The Economic History Review, Continuity and Change, Middle Eastern Studies, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, and the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, as well as contributing to peer-reviewed Israeli journals such as Zmanim, New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Region, and the Journal of the Historical Society of Israel. His extensive earlier publications include his book, The Palestinian Peasant Economy under the Mandate, published by Harvard University Press.
In addition to his academic pursuits, Nadan spent more than a decade in senior executive roles in private companies and NGOs. On some occasions he served as a special advisor, leveraging his historical expertise to resolve historically-linked disputes in the arenas of land ownership and economics.
Aviva Steinberger
Aviva is the Director of Innovation Diplomacy at Start-Up Nation Central, where she engages with governments, corporations, and people around the world, leveraging the Israeli innovation ecosystem to build resilient relationships that position Israel as a partner in addressing some of the biggest global and regional challenges.
Prior to joining SNC, Aviva was the Director of Global Planning at JDC, the largest Jewish humanitarian aid organization. There she led the strategic planning efforts of the organization’s work around the world. Before moving to Israel in 2009, Aviva was the Director of World Trade Center Business Recovery and Industry Development at the NY State Governor’s office responsible for the economic development and recovery efforts to revitalize lower Manhattan after 9/11, allocating $800M in funds to more than 14,000 businesses
Gary Soleiman
Gary Soleiman is a climate and energy-tech professional operating at the intersection of technology innovation, climate action, and public policy. He leads Climate & Energy Partnerships at Startup Nation Central, where he connects global corporations, investors, and governments with the Israeli innovation ecosystem.
Daniella Traub
Dr. Daniela Giulia Traub holds a PhD in International Relations. Her doctoral research focused on foreign policy analysis in normalization processes through knowledge-based economy between Muslim states - Azerbaijan, Morocco, and the UAE - and Israel. Her current postdoctoral research continues to explore this topic with emphasis on Saudi Arabia while also examining the US-China trade war's effects on the Middle East.
In recent years, she has concentrated on marketing and business development within the hi-tech sector. Her diplomatic career includes service as Israeli Deputy Ambassador to Ireland and Assistant to the Military Attaché to Italy. She is a published author of two novels.
Louis Tuchman
Louis Tuchman recently graduated with a BA in Management and Liberal Arts at Tel Aviv University, with a focus on Middle Eastern Studies. In the summer of 2022, Louis had the privilege of interning for the Abraham Accords Peace Institute, where he gained valuable work experience in the field of regional cooperation and a deeper understanding of the economic and people-to-people relations between Accords member nations. Currently, Louis is the Coordinator of the Gulf-Israel Policy Forum and will also be co-hosting and creating content for the MDC Podcast, "Middle East 3.0
Daniel Weiner
Daniel Weiner, Ph.D. joined the University of Connecticut in 2012 as Vice Provost for Global Affairs and Professor of Geography. In February 2016, he was promoted to Vice President. Prior to joining UConn, Weiner spent four years as Executive Director of the Center for International Studies at Ohio University and eleven years as Director of the Office of International Programs at West Virginia University. He earned a B.A. in 1979, an M.A. in 1981 and a Ph.D. in 1986, all in Geography at Clark University.
Weiner is a development geographer with area studies expertise in Eastern/Southern Africa, Appalachia and the Middle East. He is a specialist in the theory and practice of participatory geographic information systems (GIS). His research areas include: adaptation to climate change; energy and development; GIS and society; land reform; and, political ecology. He has received 15 externally funded grants totaling over $2.5 million, published three books, 30 journal articles and 29 book chapters. Weiner lived in Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe for almost three years in the 1980s.