Dr. Salam Said is a Syrian economist and academic with a Ph.D. in Economics & Social Sciences from the University of Bremen, Germany. Between 2003 and 2022, she lectured at various German universities and researched Arab economies, the political economy of Syria, post war reconstruction, and sanctions. In 2021, she joined the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung’s Middle East & North Africa Department as a policy adviser. She now directs the FES Libya Office in Tunis and leads the regional project “For Socially Just Economic Policies in the MENA Region”. Her most recent scholarly work includes co authoring the chapter “Sectarianization and the State Among Druze Communities in Syria” in Sectarianism and Civil War in Syria (2025), and co editing Coercion, Predation and State Formation in Libya and Iraq: Parallel Perspectives (FES & SWP, 2025). She also appeared on the May 2025 episode of the Syria: Alternative Dialogues podcast, discussing neoliberal policies in Syria.