Terms of Use - MEA Institute for Strategic Studies

Effective 1 January 2026 · Last updated 20 April 2026.

The terms on which visitors may access and use the MEA Institute for Strategic Studies website.

These Terms of Use (“these Terms”) govern your access to and use of the website published at meainstitute.org and any associated subdomains, pages, applications, content feeds, and digital services operated by The Middle East & Africa Institute for Strategic Studies (the “Institute”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). By accessing or using the website, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you should not use the website.

The Institute is an independent, non-partisan, youth-led policy research organisation advancing rigorous research and inclusive dialogue across the Middle East and Africa. The website is intended to support that mission by making our research, analysis, events, and expert network available to policymakers, researchers, partners, media, and the public.

These Terms should be read together with our Privacy Policy and, where applicable, any additional terms that accompany specific products, events, forms, or services on the website.

1. Acceptance of these Terms

By accessing, browsing, registering for, downloading from, or otherwise interacting with the website, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by these Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, the Cookie Notice, and any other notices or guidelines posted on the website. These Terms constitute a binding agreement between you and the Institute.

If you are accessing the website on behalf of an organisation, you represent and warrant that you are authorised to accept these Terms on that organisation’s behalf, and that the organisation will be bound accordingly.

2. About the Institute and the website

The website is operated by The Middle East & Africa Institute for Strategic Studies. It publishes research outputs, including op-eds, articles, policy briefs, reports, policy reports, commentary, explainers, and interviews, information about our six policy centres and two regional programmes, biographies of our experts and leadership, details of our events, and episodes of our Axis and Arch podcast and other media series.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, content on the website is made available for general information, research, and educational purposes, in line with the Institute’s public-interest mission.

3. Who may use the website

The website is available to any member of the public with lawful access to the internet. By using the website, you confirm that:

You are at least the age of majority in your jurisdiction, or you are using the website under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to these Terms on your behalf;
Your access to the website, and your intended use of it, is not prohibited under any law, regulation, or sanctions regime that applies to you; and
You will comply with these Terms and all applicable laws.

Certain features, such as event registration, newsletter subscription (when available), or career applications, may require you to provide additional information. Where that is the case, you agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information, and to keep it up to date.

4. Intellectual property and permitted use of our content

4.1 Ownership

All content published on the website – including text, research publications, policy briefs, reports, headlines, metadata descriptions, photographs, illustrations, infographics, data visualisations, videos, audio recordings, podcast episodes, the Institute’s name, the mandala submark, logos, institutional marks, taxonomies, and the overall editorial design, is owned by the Institute, its contributors, or its licensors, and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. All rights not expressly granted in these Terms are reserved.

4.2 Permitted personal and institutional use

Subject to your continued compliance with these Terms, the Institute grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to:

View and read the website for personal, research, educational, journalistic, or policy-informational purposes;
Download or print a reasonable number of pages of the website for your own personal, non-commercial reference; and
Share links to publications, events, podcast episodes, and expert profiles through normal editorial, academic, and social channels.

4.3 Restrictions

Except as expressly permitted by these Terms, by a separate written agreement with the Institute, or by applicable law (including quotation and fair-use or fair-dealing exceptions), you may not:

Reproduce, republish, distribute, broadcast, syndicate, or mirror any publication, podcast episode, video, or substantial portion of the website;
Modify, adapt, translate, or create derivative works from any Institute content without our prior written permission;
Use Institute content to train, fine-tune, evaluate, or otherwise develop artificial intelligence or machine-learning models without our prior written permission;
Sell, license, or otherwise commercialise any Institute content, or incorporate it into a paid product or service;
Remove, obscure, or alter any copyright, trademark, author attribution, citation, watermark, or other proprietary notice; or
Use the Institute’s name, logo, mandala submark, or any of its policy centre names, programme names, or expert likenesses in a way that suggests endorsement, affiliation, or sponsorship without our prior written permission.

4.4 Requesting permission

Requests for republication, translation, syndication, speaker bookings, podcast licensing, and other uses that fall outside the permitted scope should be directed to our communications team at contact@meainstitute.org. Requests are considered on a case-by-case basis and do not create any obligation on the Institute to grant permission.

5. Citation and attribution

Readers who cite Institute publications in academic, policy, media, or other work are asked to do so accurately and in full, including the author(s), title, publication date, and “Middle East & Africa Institute for Strategic Studies” or “MEA Institute for Strategic Studies” as the publisher. Where a recommended citation is provided on an individual publication page, please use it.

Short, accurate, and clearly attributed quotations are welcome for the purposes of review, comment, reporting, scholarship, and policy analysis. Quotations must not be edited in a way that materially alters the meaning of the original text.

6. User-submitted content

6.1 What counts as submitted content

The website includes forms through which you may submit information to us — for example, the contact form, partnership and media enquiries, event registrations, career applications, newsletter sign-ups, and expressions of interest in joining the MEA Institute’s Network. Any information, text, attachments, or materials you submit through those forms or by email is “Submitted Content”.

6.2 Licence you grant to us

By providing Submitted Content, you grant the Institute a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to store, process, review, and use that Submitted Content for the purposes for which it was submitted, including responding to your enquiry, reviewing your application, administering the event, and improving our services, and in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

6.3 Warranties

You confirm that any Submitted Content is your own or that you have the right to submit it, is accurate, does not infringe the rights of any third party, and does not violate any law or these Terms. You are solely responsible for the Submitted Content you provide.

6.4 No confidentiality of unsolicited ideas

Unless we have agreed otherwise in writing (for example, under a partnership agreement or non-disclosure agreement), we do not accept unsolicited proposals, manuscripts, research ideas, or creative submissions on a confidential basis. Please do not send us confidential or proprietary material through general enquiry channels.

7. Acceptable use

You agree to use the website in a manner consistent with its mission as a public-interest research platform. You agree not to:

Use the website in a way that violates any applicable law, regulation, or sanctions regime;
Harass, threaten, defame, or impersonate any person, including our staff, experts, contributors, donors, partners, or other users;
Post or transmit content that is unlawful, defamatory, obscene, discriminatory, incites violence, or otherwise harmful;
Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the website, server, database, or related systems; bypass authentication or security measures; or probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the website;
Introduce viruses, malware, or other harmful code, or interfere with the proper working of the website;
Use automated systems (including bots, scrapers, or crawlers) to access the website in a manner that imposes an unreasonable load, circumvents access controls, or harvests content at scale, except for the operation of well-behaved, publicly identifiable search engines that respect our robots.txt file;
Reverse-engineer, decompile, or disassemble any software or underlying code of the website;
Collect or store personal data about other users without their consent; or
Use the website to send unsolicited commercial communications.

8. Third-party links, embeds, and services

The website includes hyperlinks to external websites, embeds third-party media (including Spotify and YouTube for Axis and Arch episodes and related content), and may integrate third-party services such as event registration platforms, form handlers, analytics providers, and anti-spam tools.

The Institute provides these links, embeds, and integrations for convenience and informational value. We do not control, and are not responsible for, the content, privacy practices, terms, or availability of any third-party website or service. Your use of any third-party service is at your own risk and is governed by that third party’s terms and privacy notice.

A hyperlink or embed does not imply endorsement by the Institute of the third party, its content, its products, or its services.

9. Editorial independence and nature of content

The Institute is independent and non-partisan. The views expressed in publications, podcast episodes, interviews, and event contributions are those of the named author(s), speaker(s), or contributor(s), and do not necessarily reflect the institutional position of the Institute, its leadership, its board, its funders, or its partners.

Where a publication reflects an institutional position, that is made explicit on the publication itself. All other content should be understood as the analysis and opinion of its attributed authors.

10. No professional or policy advice

Content on the website is provided for general information, research, and educational purposes. It is not legal, financial, investment, medical, diplomatic, security, or other professional advice, and it is not a recommendation for any particular course of action. You should not act, or refrain from acting, on the basis of content on the website without seeking appropriate independent professional advice.

11. Accuracy, availability, and corrections

The Institute takes reasonable care to ensure that information on the website is accurate, current, and consistent with our editorial standards at the time of publication. However, we make no warranty that content will be error-free, that the website will be uninterrupted or secure, or that defects will be corrected.

We may update, amend, withdraw, or archive content at any time without notice. Where a substantive correction is made to a publication after release, the correction is noted at the bottom of that publication with the date and nature of the change, in line with our editorial governance standards. Silent corrections of typographical errors may be made without notice.

12. Donations, partnerships, and fundraising

The website includes features that invite support for the Institute’s work, including donation calls-to-action and partnership enquiry forms. Donations and partnership contributions are voluntary and, unless expressly stated otherwise, are non-refundable once processed.

Donations and partnerships are used to advance the Institute’s independent research and programming. Acceptance of a donation or partnership does not entitle the donor or partner to any editorial influence over the Institute’s research, publications, events, or public positions. The Institute retains full editorial and institutional independence at all times.

Specific terms that apply to a particular donation, grant, sponsorship, or partnership may be set out in a separate written agreement between the Institute and the supporter.

13. Careers and recruitment

The Careers page and any associated application forms are intended for applicants interested in opportunities with the Institute. Information you submit through a careers form, or by email in response to a posted role, will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy and used for the purposes of recruitment and, where you consent, for consideration for future roles.

The Institute does not charge fees of any kind in connection with applications, interviews, or employment. Any communication suggesting otherwise should be treated as fraudulent and reported to us.

14. Privacy and data protection

Our use of personal data is described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms. Cookies and similar technologies are described in our Cookie Notice. By using the website, you acknowledge the practices described in those documents.

15. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the website and all content on it are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory. The Institute specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness, non-infringement, and uninterrupted or error-free operation.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited — including, where applicable, liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded under the law of your jurisdiction.

16. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Institute, its leadership, staff, experts, contributors, partners, and suppliers shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, or exemplary damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or business opportunities, arising out of or in connection with your access to or use of (or inability to access or use) the website or any content on it, whether based in contract, tort (including negligence), statute, or otherwise, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Without limiting the foregoing, the Institute’s aggregate liability to you in connection with the website and these Terms, to the extent such liability is not excluded by law, shall not exceed one hundred United States dollars (USD $100) or the equivalent in your local currency.

17. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Institute and its leadership, staff, experts, contributors, partners, and suppliers from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the website, or your infringement of any law or third-party right.

18. Suspension and termination of access

The Institute may, at its sole discretion and without liability, suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to all or part of the website at any time, with or without notice, including where we reasonably believe that you have breached these Terms, that your conduct exposes the Institute or other users to risk, or that suspension is required to protect the integrity of the website.

Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination, including intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity, governing law, and miscellaneous provisions, will continue to apply after your access ends.

19. Changes to the website and to these Terms

The Institute may change, update, relaunch, or discontinue any part of the website at any time. We may also update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, applicable law, or institutional policy.

When we make a material change to these Terms, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, indicate the nature of the change. Your continued use of the website after a change has been posted constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

20. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or the website (including non-contractual disputes and claims), are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Swiss Confederation. The courts of Geneva shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any such dispute or claim.

If you access the website from outside the EU or Switzerland, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws to the extent they apply.

21. Miscellaneous

21.1 Entire agreement These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, the Cookie Notice, and any separate written agreement between you and the Institute, constitute the entire agreement between you and the Institute concerning the website, and supersede any prior communications on the same subject.

21.2 Severability If any provision of these Terms is found to be unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision will be deemed severable and will not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions.

21.3 No waiver A failure or delay by the Institute to exercise any right under these Terms is not a waiver of that right, and no single or partial exercise of a right precludes any further exercise of it.

21.4 Assignment You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. The Institute may assign or transfer its rights and obligations in connection with a reorganisation, merger, or similar institutional change.

21.5 No agency Nothing in these Terms creates any partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship between you and the Institute.

21.6 Headings Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect the interpretation of these Terms.

22. How to contact us

If you have questions about these Terms, wish to request permission to reuse content, or want to report a concern about use of the website, please contact us at:

MEA Institute for Strategic Studies: Rue de Chantepoulet 1, 1201 Geneva, Switzerland.

General enquiries: contact@meainstitute.org

Partnerships: partnerships@meainstitute.org

Careers: career@meainstitute.org