Dr. Haykel Ben Mahfoudh was a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs. In March 2024, Haykel was elected judge at the International Criminal Court, where he will serve until 2033. Before his appointment, he was the director of the Center for Research in International and European Law and Maghreb-Europe Relations, a position he has held since 2013. He has been a member of the Scientific Board at the University of Carthage in Tunisia since 2014. From 2006 to 2009, he taught Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, International Law, and Human Rights Law at University of El Manar in Tunisia.

Ben Mahfoudh is a founding partner Ben Mahfoudh & Co. Law Firm, where he worked from 1996 to 2011. He has been an associate expert the National Defense University’s Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies since 2002 and partnered with NATO in 2007 and 2018 on the topics of transparency and security in Tunisia. Ben Mahfoudh has expertise in security sector reform programs, international development, constitution-building, and civil society. He previously contributed to the Atlantic Council as a nonresident fellow from 2014 to 2017.

Ben Mahfoudh received a LLM in Law in 1993, a LLB in Economic and Social Law in 1993, a Masters in Public and Finance Law in 1995, and a PhD in International Humanitarian Law in 2005 all from the University of Carthage in Tunisia. He is the author of three books published between 2010 and 2016 as well as many academic and other publications in English and French. He has lectured in the United States and Europe, including at NATO. Ben Mahfoudh speaks Arabic, English, and French.