Dr. Rafik Abdessalem holds a BA in philosophy from Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco and obtained his PhD in politics and international relations from the University of Westminster. He is the founder and director of the Centre for Strategic and Diplomatic Studies, a think tank that focuses on Tunisia’s political, security and economics concerns, and has a regional focus on the broader Middle East and North Africa region. He played a prominent role in founding the Tunisians Student General Union in the 1980s. After a government crackdown on dissent, especially on the student movement, he was forced into exile in England, where he lived for twenty-one years. There, he founded The Magreb Centre for Research and Translations, and chaired the London Forum for Dialogue, a platform for various Arab political figures in the United Kingdom. He later worked at the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies in Doha as a director of research.
