Alaa Zoubi

Alaa Zoubi is a Research Assistant with the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey in the New Global Order Programme at RUSI. Her research focuses on the intersection of international law, security, and diplomacy, with a particular interest in how legal frameworks and judicial interpretation can contribute to long-term peace and stability in regions affected by protracted conflict.

She recently completed her LLM in International Law at the University of Edinburgh, where her dissertation, “Short-Term Security vs Long-Term Peace: An Analysis of the Role of Courts in Interpreting International Humanitarian Law for Sustainable Peace”, developed a three-layered model of judicial interpretation. This model argues for a peace-oriented approach to international humanitarian law, combining strict legal compliance with forward-looking assessments of stability and legitimacy. In this work, she critically examined case studies including the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on the West Bank Wall and the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision on targeted killings, situating them within broader debates about the limits and potential of legal reasoning in contexts of war and occupation.

Before joining RUSI, Alaa earned a Master’s degree in Diplomacy and Security from Tel Aviv University, where she concentrated on the role of international institutions and legal norms in shaping regional politics. Her earlier academic background includes undergraduate studies in diplomacy, media, and journalism, disciplines that sharpened her expertise in political communication and her ability to analyse international developments with both legal and strategic lenses.

Throughout her academic and professional trajectory, Alaa has consistently engaged with questions at the heart of contemporary international relations: how law functions in times of crisis, how courts and institutions can act as more than procedural actors, and how the shifting dynamics of the MENA region interact with the global order. She has worked on issues ranging from transitional justice and terrorism to the regulation of armed conflict and the interpretation of the UN Charter in relation to the use of force.

At RUSI, Alaa brings this interdisciplinary perspective to the programme’s work on the MENA and Turkey, contributing research and analysis that bridges doctrinal international law, regional politics, and global security debates. She is particularly interested in how international law can be interpreted not only to regulate conflict but to open avenues for reconciliation and durable peace.