Dr. Muriel Asseburg is a senior fellow in the Middle East and Africa division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. Her areas of expertise include Syria, Israel/Palestine and European policies toward the Middle East. From 2012 to 2015, she headed a research project on "Elite Change and New Social Mobilization in the Arab World." From 2006 to 2012, she was the head of the division. In 2008, Asseburg was a guest researcher at the Carnegie Middle East office in Beirut, Lebanon. She has also lived in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Damascus, amongst places.