Ambassador Mohamed Ali Chihi is a distinguished Tunisian diplomat and senior public official with over three decades of service in international relations, diplomacy, and governance. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Global Institute for Strategic Research (GISR), operating under the auspices of Hamad Bin Khalifa University and the Qatar Foundation.

He holds a master’s degree in management from the Faculty of Law, Economics and Political Science of the University of Tunis I, a high degree in economic administration from the National School of Administration (ENA), and a certificate of specialization in crisis diplomacy from the International Institute of Public Administration in Paris.

Ambassador Chihi began his diplomatic career in 1989 as a diplomat at the Tunisian Embassy in Rome, before serving as Head of Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and later as Political and Economic Counsellor and Chargé d’Affaires at the Tunisian Embassy in Tehran. He subsequently joined the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) as Diplomatic Counsellor and Expert in charge of assessment and evaluation.

Within the Tunisian Foreign Ministry, he has held several senior positions including Deputy Director for Financial Monitoring of Diplomatic and Consular Missions, Director of General Inspection, Director General of Consular Affairs, General Secretary, and General Secretary in charge of immigration studies and digitalization. From 2011 to 2013, he served as Consul General of Tunisia in Marseille, and in 2014 was appointed Ambassador of Tunisia to France, a role for which he was decorated as Commander of the Legion of Honor of the French Republic.

In 2017, he became Ambassador of Tunisia to the Russian Federation, with concurrent accreditation to Armenia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, earning the Cooperation Decoration of the Russian Federation for his contributions to bilateral relations.

Throughout his career, Ambassador Chihi has led and participated in numerous strategic initiatives. He presided over Tunisia’s Crisis Cell and served as Senior Negotiator during the hostage-taking of Tunisian diplomats in Libya. He also chaired the Crisis Cell for Security and Social Monitoring to prevent terrorist threats on the Tunisian-Libyan border.

A recognized expert on migration policy, he has represented Tunisia before European and international institutions, acted as National Coordinator in both the Euro-Mediterranean Immigration Process (IMMIGRATION 3) and the Euro-African RABAT Process, and headed official Tunisian delegations across Europe on migration and development issues.

He also co-chaired the Monitoring and Coordination Committee for the Swiss Confederation’s Support Program for Democratic Transition and Human Rights in Tunisia, and oversaw the organization of high-level dialogues including the Arab–American, Arab–Russian, and Arab–European forums.