Abdelhak Bassou is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center with a focus on security and defense studies. Since 2016, Bassou has served as a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South and, since 2018, as an affiliate professor at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, specializing in security and defense studies and strategies. Bassou’s decades of experience as a security and defense practitioner and researcher serve as a platform for his work on international security and the fight against terrorism.

Previously, Bassou held several positions within the General Directorate of Moroccan National Security, where he was head of the border division from 1978 to 1993. He was appointed director of the Royal Institute of Police in 1998, before serving as the chief of regional security in Errachidia from 1999 to 2003, and Sidi Kacem from 2003 to 2005. In 2006, he became director general of intelligence at the General Directorate of National Security until 2009. He also contributed to the results of several international organizations, including the Council of Arab Interior Ministers from 1986 to 1992, where he represented the General Directorate of National Security in several meetings.

Since 2018, Bassou has been directing and editing the collectively written annual report on Africa’s geopolitics, originally titled ‘Miroir d’Afrique’ and published by the Policy Center for the New South. His works have been featured in numerous world-renowned think tanks and institutions, including a contribution in ‘Towards EU-MENA Shared Prosperity’ (Bruegel, 2017), Evolving Human Security Challenges in the Atlantic Space (Jean Monnet Network, 2019), and is also recurring author and participant in the HEC-PCNS Strategic Dialogues and its corresponding written volumes. Bassou holds a Master’s Degree in political science and international studies from the Faculty of Law, Economics and Social Sciences of Agdal in Rabat.