Dr. Abdalhadi Alijila

Abdalhadi Alijla is a Palestinian Swedish social and political scientist and science advocate. Abdalhadi is the author of “Trust in Divided Societies” by Bloomsbury Academics and I.B. Tauris UK and co-editor of “Rebel Governance in the Middle East”. Abdalhadi is a Non-resident senior fellow at the Arab Reform Initiative. He is the 2021 International Political Science Association Global South Award. He is a co-founder of Palestine Young Academy in 2020. In 2025, he won first place of literature section at “Un Mondo di parole – A world of words”, Italy. He is an Associate Researcher and the Regional Manager of Varieties of Democracy Institute (Gothenburg University) for Gulf countries. He was a Post-doctoral fellow at the Orient Institute in Beirut (OIB). Since 2021, he has been an associate fellow within SEPAD, sectarianism, proxies and de-sectorisation at Lancaster University. He was the Co-Leader of Global Migration and Human Rights at Global Young Academy. Abdalhadi has a PhD in political studies from the State University of Milan and an M.A. in Public Policy and Governance from Zeppelin University- Friedrichshafen, Germany. He has been granted several awards and scholarships, including Gerda Henkel (2022), DAAD (2009), RLC Junior Scientist (2010), UNIMI (2012), ICCROM (2010), Saud AL-Babtin(2002), among others. He worked for many NGOs and INGOs in the Middle East and Europe, such as Transparency International, GiZ, EU Maddad Fund for the Syria Crisis, and UNV. He is a member of the scientific and consultative committee of the Center for Arab Unity Studies in Beirut, and International Science Council, among others.

He is a member of the scientific and consultative committee of the Center for Arab Unity Studies in Beirut. His main research interests are divided societies, Social Cohesion, Rebel Governance, Social Capital, Middle East Studies, and Comparative Politics.