Bassma Kodmani is the Executive Director of the Arab Reform Initiative, a consortium of Arab policy research institutes with partners in European and US working collaboratively on reforms and democratic transitions in the Arab world. Prior to that she was senior adviser on international cooperation to the French national research council (2007-09), associate researcher at CERI-Sciences Po (2006-07) and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Collège de France (2005-06). From 1999 to 2005 she was a senior program officer, head of the Governance and International Cooperation program at the Ford Foundation office for the Middle East and North Africa, based in Cairo where she was in charge of support to research institutions, NGOs and public agencies in the region. Prior to moving to Cairo, she established and directed the Middle East Program at the Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI) in Paris from 1981 to 1998 and is Associate Professor of International Relations at Paris University, currently on leave. In 2011-2012, she took a leave of one year from the Arab Reform Initiative to take on a special mission within the Syrian National Council, the opposition coalition seeking democratic change in Syria as head of Foreign Relations and spokesperson. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Sciences-Po in Paris. She has authored books and articles on conflicts in the Middle East, regional security, political developments in Arab societies and the relationship between religious authority and political authority in the Muslim world. Her latest book Abattre les murs (Breaking Walls) was published in France in February 2008.

MEI Discussants:

Prof Michael Hudson – Professor and Director, Middle East Institute (National University of Singapore)

Dr Ali Kadri – Senior Research Fellow, Middle East Institute (National University of Singapore)

Dr Linda Matar – Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Middle East Institute (National University of Singapore)