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Koert Debeuf (born 1974) is a Belgian writer and policy maker. He is representative of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) to the Middle East and North Africa. He was advisor, speechwriter and later spokesperson of Belgium’s Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt in the Verhofstadt II Government and the Verhofstadt III Government. He is the author of Inside the Arab Spring. Three years on the Front Line of the Arab Spring (2014) and of the blog Inside the Arab Spring at the EUObserver.

Early life and education

Debeuf received his early education in Bruges. He graduated from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and as an Erasmus student from the Università di Bologna. He earned his masters in History with a thesis on the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea.

Career

After having worked for the Mayor of Leuven, the Flemish Parliament, the Belgian House of Representatives and the Belgian Senate, Debeuf became speechwriter and advisor of Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt in 2003. In 2007 he became spokesperson of the Prime Minister. During this period he wrote the book Koorddansers van de macht. Pleidooi voor politiek (2009).

At the end of the Verhofstadt III Government Debeuf became director of liberal think tank at the Flemish Liberal Party, Open Vld. After the European elections of 2009 he became Chief of Cabinet of the President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Guy Verhofstadt. Together with Guy Verhofstadt, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Sylvie Goulard and Isabelle Durant he started the Spinelli Group, a high level pro-European network with members as Amartya Sen, Jacques Delors, Joschka Fischer and Mario Monti.

In September 2011 Debeuf moved to Cairo as the representative of ALDE to the Middle East and North Africa. He created the network of Arab Leaders for Freedom and Democracy, a high level group with members as Amr Moussa and Mahmoud Jibril. He brought several Arab activists and politicians to the European Parliament. In 2013 he organized the visits of Salim Idriss, then Chief of Staff of the Free Syrian Army and Ahmed Jarba, then President of the Syrian National Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.

Koert Debeuf’s articles and blogs on the Middle East and North Africa appeared in the EUObserver, Carnegie Europe, The German Marshall Fund of the United States, Fikra Forum, Le Vif, Knack. He is regularly asked for expert analysis on the BBC World Service, France 24 and Al Arabiya.

An article on his work in the Arab region was published in The New York Times.

Bibliography

K. Debeuf, Inside the Arab Revolution. Three years on the Front Line of the Arab Spring, Lannoo Campus (Leuven, 2014) ISBN-13: 978-9401418249

K. Debeuf, Koorddansers van de Macht: Pleidooi voor politiek, Meulenhof-Manteau (Antwerpen, 2009) ISBN-13: 978-9085421771

“From Arab Spring to Arab Revolution: three years of ALDE representation in the Arab world” in Liberalism in the Arab world. Just a good idea? (Al Mahrosa and Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Cairo, 2014) ISBN 978-977-313-533-1

“Nederland: Back to the Future” in Dappere Nieuwe Wereld. 21 jonge denkers over de toekomst van Nederland, Van Gennep (Amsterdam, 2012) ISBN-13: 978-9461640451

External Links

www.koertdebeuf.com

References

references