Dr. Kawakibi is a prominent political scientist and activist who served for many years as director of research at the Arab Reform Initiative in Paris. He also serves as an associate researcher at Centro de Estudios y Documentación Internacionales de Barcelona (CIDOB) and as a member of the Consultative Council of Mediterranean Citizens’ Assembly (MCA).
Dr. Kawakibi teaches a Master program on Development and Migration at the Paris 1 University. From 2000 to 2006, he served as Director of the Institut Français du Proche Orient (IFPO) in Aleppo, Syria. From 2009 to 2011, he was Principal Researcher at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Amsterdam. Dr. Kawakibi has been the Director of The Arab Center for Research and Political Studies in Paris since 2018.
Dr. Kawakibi has also published numerous scientific essays in edited volumes and specialized reviews in Arabic, English, French, Spanish, and German on topics such as human rights, civil society, migration, and political reform in the Arab world. Dr. Kawakibi served as a member of the Executive Committee of The Day After Project and its Security Sector Reform working group, as well as the former chairperson of The Day After.
Ms. Allaf The Day After Chairperson and communications strategist and global affairs specialist, working and consulting mainly in the fields of media, international relations, and governmental and non-governmental organizations. She has substantial broadcasting, writing, public speaking, and communications training experience.
She is a writer and researcher, and was Associate Fellow at Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) from 2004 to 2012. Still focusing on Syria, the Middle East, and international affairs, she is a widely published author of papers, analysis, and commentary on these issues.
Dr. Salam Said is a Syrian academic and economist. She has researched and lectured at different German universities since 2003. Her research expertise lies in the Arab economies, political economy of Syria, specifically impacts of post-war economic reconstruction and early recovery. Since 2021, Said has held a position as a policy adviser at the Middle East and North Africa Department of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Currently, she serves as the director for Libya office and leads the regional project “For Socially just economic policies in MENA Region” based in Tunis. Said has published and edited various academic and policy papers. Her recent publications focusses on geopolitical analysis and the impacts of Sanctions on Syria.
Dr. Amer Ghrawi has been working for international development organizations since 2002 on various projects in the fields of Decentralization, Local Governance, and Public Sector Development. He was based in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Germany.
Amer Ghrawi holds a doctorate in International Politics from the University of Potsdam, Germany. He published a book in 2014: “An Elusive Hope, State Reform in Syria 2000—2007” and an article in 2013: “The Syrian Swamp: Why the Syrian Revolution is More Explosive than Other Arab Spring Revolutions”. Before, he earned two master’s degrees in Public Management and in Global Public Policy. He was born in Damascus and is married with two children.
Ms. Seif is a Syrian Jurist and Human rights activist. She is the co-founder and the head of the legal Committee of the Syrian Women’s Network.
Ms. Seif is also co-founder of the Syrian Women Political Movement and board member of the Syrian Center for Legal Researches & Studies. In addition, she is working on accountability with ECCHR, the European Center for Constitutional & Human Rights.
Before the Revolution, Ms. Seif was a member of Damascus Declaration from 2007-2012 Head of the Social Care and Development Department 1994 -2001 at Adidas textile Company – Damascus, Syria.
Dr. Heydemann is The Day After vice chairperson and the Janet Wright Ketcham 1953 Professor in Middle East Studies, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government, at Smith College in Northampton, USA. Prof. Heydemann is a world-leading expert on authoritarianism and conflict in the Middle East in general and on Syria in particular.
He continues to serve as a nonresident senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Foundation. From 2007-15, Prof. Heydemann held a number of leadership positions at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., including director of the Institute’s Syria program and vice president, Center for Applied Research on Conflict.
Among his many publications are: “Reconstructing Authoritarianism: The Politics and Political Economy of Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Syria” (The Politics of Post-Conflict Reconstruction, POMEPS Studies 30, 2018); “Beyond Fragility: Syria and the Challenges of Reconstruction in Fierce States” (The Brookings Institution, 2018); “Upgrading Authoritarianism in the Middle East (The Brookings Institution, 2007) and Authoritarianism in Syria: Institutions and Social Conflict, 1946-1970 (Cornell University Press, 1999).
Mr. Yazigi a Syrian journalist and analyst who specialises in Syrian economic affairs.
He is the founder and editor of The Syria Report, an online economics news bulletin, and co-founder of The Syrian Observer, which translates articles from Syrian publications into English.
Mr. Yazigi is also a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, where he has published reports on Syria’s war economy and decentralisation. He recently published a report on the regime’s capitalisation on property destruction and reconstruction for Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
Amr Al Azm was educated in the UK, reading Archaeology of Western Asiatics at University College, London and graduated with a doctoral degree in 1991.
He was the founder and Director of the Scientific and Conservation Laboratories at the General Department of Antiquities and Museums in Syria (1999-2004), and taught at the University of Damascus until 2006. From 2006-2009 he became a visiting Assistant Professor at Brigham Young University in the US. Currently he is a Professor of Middle East History and Anthropology at Shawnee State University in Ohio.
Whilst working in Syria, Amr Al-Azm was a first-hand observer and sometime participant of the reform processes instigated by Bashar Al-Assad thus gaining insights into how they were enacted and why more often than not they failed. Furthermore, he is a keen follower and commentator on current events in Syria and the Middle East, and has written articles in numerous journals and major media outlets including guest editorials for the New York Times, Time Magazine and Foreign Policy.
Dr. Al-Azm was a member of the Executive Committee of The Day After Project and its Economic Restructuring and Social Policy working group. He also coordinates the Heritage Protection Initiative (TDA-HPI) for cultural heritage protection at TDA.
Ms. Jalabi is a Montreal-based writer, member of the Syrian National Council, and member of the Executive Committee on the Day After Project. Before the Syrian revolution she was a signatory in the Damascus Declaration.
Ms. Jalabi is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Law and Religion at Hamline University, and worked as columnist in the Arab Press for last 12 years. She has a B.A in anthropology and political science from McGill University, a master’s degree in journalism from Carleton University and is currently a Ph.D Candidate at Concordia University in Montreal in Religious Studies.
As a frequent lecturer on issue related to Islam and the Middle East, and recently more specifically with a focus on Syria, Ms. Jalabi has appeared in Arab, American and Canadian media including Aljazeera, Orient, CBC, BBC, PBS and CTV.
Najib Ghadbian is a Syrian activist and academic. Dr. Ghadbian is active in promoting democratic transition in the Arab World and within the Syrian opposition movement as an independent academic.
He served as the Special Representative to the United States and the United Nations for the Syrian National Coalition (2013-2018). He was a signatory to the Damascus Declaration (2005) and a founding member of the Syrian National Council (2011) and the Syrian National Coalition (2012).
He is an Associate Professor of political science and Middle East Studies at the University of Arkansas. He is the author of several books, book chapters, articles, and essays. He is a frequent contributor to several US, European, and Middle East media outlets.
Dr. Ghadbian’s research interests include democratization and leadership in the Arab world, Syrian politics, and US policy toward the Middle East.
Dr. Jouejati is a professor of Middle East studies at the National Defense University’s Near East South Asia (NESA) Center for Strategic Studies and an adjunct professor of political science and international affairs at the George Washington University (GWU).
He is also a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC. Dr. Jouejati served previously as the first chairperson of The Day After.
Previously, Dr. Jouejati served as Director of the Middle East Program at GWU’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Before assuming that position, Dr. Jouejati served as the political adviser to the European Commission delegation in Damascus.
Earlier, he was the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) National Program Officer in Damascus and later a consultant to the UNDP’s Bureau of Arab States in New York. He also served as an adviser to the Syrian delegation to the Middle East peace talks. Dr. Jouejati holds an MA in Arab area studies from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Utah.
