Air Force Officer and French Diplomat Join Institute as Visiting Fellows

Souhire Medini and Lt. Col. James E. Shepard Have Experience in Middle East and National Capitals

Washington, DC – Souhire Medini, a diplomat in the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MFA), and Lt. Col. James E. Shepard, an active-duty officer in the U.S. Air Force, have joined the Institute as Visiting Fellows for the 2024-2025 year.

“With their experience in the Middle East and in their respective headquarters in Paris and Washington, D.C., Souhire and Jim bring an important perspective to the work of the Institute and to policy formulation in the nation’s capital,” said Robert Satloff, Executive Director of the Institute and the Howard P. Berkowitz Chair in U.S. Middle East Policy.

Lt. Col. Shepard served most recently as the senior executive officer to the Air Force director of staff at the Pentagon, and assisted in synchronizing and integrating policy, plans, positions, procedures, and cross-functional issues for the USAF headquarters staff.

As a command pilot, Lt. Col. Shepard has commanded and instructed in both the KC-10 and C-5M aircraft, accumulating over 3,900 flight hours. He has deployed seven times in support of Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and New Dawn, as well as Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, during which he accumulated 220 combat sorties and more than 1,800 flight hours in combat. He is the recipient of a Defense Meritorious Service Medal, an Air Medal, and an Aerial Achievement Medal, among his many honors. Lt. Col. Shepard is the latest in the Institute’s decades-long Military Fellows Program in cooperation with the U.S. armed services.

Medini, a career diplomat, is a Middle Eastern and North African affairs expert who spent the last four years in the French embassy in Algeria covering domestic policy. Prior to that, she was responsible for the bilateral relationship between France and Egypt at the French MFA (2016-2018), and worked as a press and communications officer at the French Embassy in Egypt (2014-2016). At the French MFA, she also monitored the day-to-day Middle East negotiations on the Security Council agenda, including UNIFIL (2018-2020). Her Fellowship at the Institute is a joint program with the French MFA.

Fluent in French, Arabic and English, Souhire received her master’s degree in Middle East studies from Sciences Po Grenoble and holds a bachelor’s in Arabic studies from Rennes II University.

Media Contact: Shelby Weiss, 202-230-9550, email.

About The Washington Institute: The Institute is an independent, nonpartisan research institution funded exclusively by U.S. citizens that seeks to advance a balanced and realistic understanding of American interests in the Middle East and to promote the policies that secure them. Drawing on the research of its fellows and the experience of its policy practitioners, the Institute promotes informed debate and scholarly research on U.S. policy in the region.