Associate Fellows
Ilyas Saliba is a political scientist focusing on authoritarianism, civic space, human rights and academic freedom in the Arab world as well as on European foreign and development policy towards the region. Ilyas is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of International Politics and Conflict Studies at the University of Erfurt. He holds a PhD from Humboldt University Berlin with a dissertation exploring authoritarian learning during the so-called Arab Spring. As part of his research, he conducted extensive fieldwork in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. His dissertation received the award for Best Dissertation in Middle Eastern Studies from the German Association for Middle Eastern Studies (DAVO). From 2013-2020 Ilyas was a research fellow at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) Research Unit on Democracy and Democratization. He has also been a visiting researcher at the European University Institute in Florence (Italy), Nuffield College at Oxford University (UK), the American University in Cairo (Egypt) and the École de Gouvernance et d’Économie in Rabat (Morocco).
Prior to joining CARPO as an Associate Fellow, Ilyas worked at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), where he focused on democracy support and human rights issues and co-developed the Academic Freedom Index (AFI). Before that, he worked as a MENA Advocacy Officer at Amnesty International in Berlin and as a researcher at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) in Zurich. In 2022, Ilyas also gained parliamentary experience working as a foreign policy advisor to a Member of the German Bundestag. In addition, Ilyas serves as a short-term election observer for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He is member of the European Coordinating Committee for Academic Freedom Advocacy and serves on the Academic Freedom Committees of both the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) and the German Association for Middle Eastern Studies (DAVO). He teaches graduate seminars in his areas of expertise at the University of Potsdam and the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.
relations between Europe and the Arab world, with particular focus on relations between Germany and Egypt, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia; authoritarianism; human rights and academic freedom; civic space and shrinking spaces; protests and fieldwork safety.
& Dörthe Engelcke (2026): ‘The Authoritarian Convergence against Academic Freedom in Germany: Political Interference, Securitization, and the Weaponization of Antisemitism Allegations’, in: Laboratorio dell’ISPF XXIII. Available online.
(2025): Resilience Support for CSOs in the WANA Region, Study Paper, Heinrich Böll Foundation. Available online.
(2025): 'Declining academic freedom in the Maghreb', in: MECAM Papers 14. Available online.
(2023): Shrinking Spaces in the Middle East and North Africa. Supporting Resilience of Civil Society, IDOS Policy Brief 17/2023, Bonn. Available online.
& Kirsten R. Lyer and Janika Spannagel (2022): University Autonomy Decline. Causes, Responses, and Implications for Academic Freedom, London. Available online.
