Salma Annasse is a 2026 Soref Fellow at The Washington Institute. A Moroccan policy researcher and strategy consultant specializing in Middle East security, civil society engagement, and track-two diplomacy, her work examines how high-level diplomatic and political frameworks translate into societal, institutional, and policy practice across the Middle East and North Africa region.
Her recent research has explored the social and educational dimensions of the Abraham Accords in the UAE to examine how normalization commitments are implemented at the grassroots level. Her work broadly approaches education, civil society, and informal institutions as components of diplomacy and statecraft, analyzing how peace-sensitive reforms are designed, absorbed, and sustained. Her experience includes regional delegations, policy exchanges, and people-to-people initiatives carried out with regional and international partners on interfaith dialogue, historical memory, and pragmatic approaches to sustaining peace frameworks in complex political environments.
