BTI blog authors

To BTI blog

On the BTI blog, BTI experts and journalists provide insights into current democracy and governance issues in developing and transition countries.

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Abdullahi Murtala

HumAngle
Reporter
Abdullahi Murtala is an Assistant Editor with HumAngle, based in Nigeria. He heads the Armed violence and climate security desk. Murtala writes on trends associated with security and the impact of climate change in Nigeria and Lake Chad. 
  • humanglemedia.com/author/murtala/
To author

Alex Vatanka

Middle East Institute
Director Iran Program
Alex Vatanka is the director of the Iran program and a senior fellow at the Frontier Europe Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. His most recent book is "The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran: The United States, Foreign Policy and Political Rivalry Since 1979."
  • mei.edu/experts/alex-vatanka
To author

Alexander Heinrich

University of Gothenburg
Master Student
Alexander Heinrich is currently pursuing an M.Sc. in Political Science at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. For his master’s thesis, he is researching regimes that have managed to recover after a period of autocratization. His research focuses on the role of civil society.
To author

Ali Fathollah-Nejad

Political Analyst
Ali Fathollah-Nejad is a German-Iranian political scientist and analyst. He is a McCloy Fellow on Global Trends of the American Council on Germany and an Associate Fellow with the American University of Beirut's Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs. He contributes to the BTI as country expert.
  • fathollah-nejad.eu/
To author

Alison Singer

Michigan State University
PhD Candidate
Alison Singer is a freelance writer for environmental organizations such as the Worldwatch Institute and the Climate Institute. Currently, she is PhD candidate in Community Sustainability at Michigan State University.
To author

Amal S. Obeidi

University of Benghazi
Associate Professor
Amal Obeidi is associate professor of comparative politics at the University of Benghazi, Libya, and associate researcher at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. She is BTI country expert on Libya.
To author

Amine Ghali

Al Kawakibi Democracy Transition Center
Director
Amine Ghali is the Director of Al Kawakibi Democracy Transition Center (KADEM). He is working on issues of democracy, reform and transition in the Arab region.
  • kawakibi.org/
To author

Anaïs Marin

Independent Belarus Expert
Anaïs Marin (PhD, Sciences Po Paris) is an independent Belarus expert based in Warsaw. An associate fellow with the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, since 2018 she also holds the pro bono mandate of UN Special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus.
To author

Anas El Gomati

Sadeq Institute
Founder and Director
Anas El Gomati is founder and director of the Sadeq Institute, Libya’s first independent public policy think tank, a former visiting fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre and former visiting lecturer at the NATO Defence college.
  • sadeqinstitute.org/
To author

Anietie Ewang

Human Rights Watch
Anietie Ewang is the Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch. Prior to joining the organization, she worked as a Senior Staff Attorney at the Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC) Nigeria. Anietie has also worked at the Initiative for Social Economic Rights (ISER), Uganda and the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Justice.
To author

Anna Gwiazda

King's College London
Lecturer
Dr. Anna Gwiazda is a lecturer in comparative politics in the Department of Political Economy at King's College London. Before joining King’s in September 2010, Anna worked at Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin. Her most book Democracy in Poland (London: Routledge, 2015) examines the quality of democracy in Poland from the collapse of communism in 1989 up to the 2011 parliamentary election. Anna Gwiazda is BTI country expert for Poland.
To author

Anna Hengge

Heidelberg University
Researcher
Anna Hengge is pursuing an MA in Political Science with a special focus on polarization and democratic backsliding. She is part of Professor Aurel Croissant‘s research team at the Institute of Political Science at Heidelberg University.
To author

Anna Jordanova

Association of International Affairs (AMO), Prague
Associate Fellow
Anna Jordanova is an Associate Fellow at the Association of International Affairs in Prague and a Ph.D. student at Charles University, Czechia. She focuses on the current developments in Central Asia, especially in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
To author

Annkatrin Christ

Bertelsmann Stiftung
Annkatrin is a graduate of RWTH Aachen University, where she studied Political Science with a focus on International Relations. She worked as an intern for the BTI in 2024 while writing her master's thesis on children's rights in post-conflict contexts. Her academic interests include peace and conflict studies, human rights and international law.
To author

Aurel Croissant

University of Heidelberg
Professor of Political Science
Aurel Croissant is Professor of Political Science at the Institute of Political Science, Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg. He is the BTI's regional coordinator for Asia and Oceania. His main research interests include the comparative analysis of political structures and processes in East- and Southeast Asia, the theoretical and empirical analysis of democracy, civil-military relations, terrorism and political violence.
To author

Awol Kassim Allo

Keele University
Senior Lecturer
Awol Allo is senior lecturer in Law at Keele University. Prior, he was fellow in human rights at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
To author