A researcher-practitioner
This thesis is conducted by Elie Abousaab, a doctoral researcher at the CEDS. It sits at the intersection of two trajectories: academic research and field practice in support of the integrity of democratic debate.
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CEDS · 2022–2026
Academically, Elie Abousaab is preparing a doctoral thesis at the CEDS, Centre d'Études Diplomatiques et Stratégiques, supervised by Pr. Michael Strauss and under the academic direction of Pr. Fouad Nohra. His work addresses the epistemic security of democracies and the mechanisms of FIMI, foreign information manipulation and interference, observed in France and the European Union. The research combines forensic corpus analysis, controlled experimentation and expert interviews; it leads to conceptual and legislative proposals. The defence is scheduled for 2026.
Operationally, he has worked for several years on questions of information integrity and civic engagement. He is the founder of the association ACTE France, an Ashoka Fellow, and has been recognised within Rotary and UNESCO programmes. This dual grounding defines a researcher-practitioner stance: research is informed by field experience, and the field is equipped by the rigour of research.
The two registers remain distinct,
and this site engages only the second.
Two trajectories, a clear boundary
ACTE France is a civic-action association. It works in the field of democratic engagement and information literacy.
épistémique.fr is the dossier of a doctoral thesis. It is academic research, conducted in a personal capacity at the CEDS.
The two inform one another without merging. The association does not fund the thesis and does not steer its conclusions; the thesis does not speak on behalf of the association. This site presents the research exclusively: its concepts, its cases, its method and its experimental study. Any institutional reading must keep to that perimeter.
- Pr. Michael Strauss
Thesis supervisor · CEDS - Pr. Fouad Nohra
Academic director · CEDS