Dr. Abderrahim Foukara has had a long distinguished career as a journalist and team leader. His sensibility and understanding of the world is the product of several distinct cultures. He was born and raised in Morocco, a gateway to both Africa and the Middle East. He was educated in the United Kingdom where he later began his journalism career with BBC radio in London. In 1999, he moved to the United States where he worked for Public Radio international before joining Aljazeera TV first as a correspondent and later as its Bureau Chief for the Americas. In addition to overseeing the work of some 300 staff, spread out across Canada, the United States and several Latin American countries, he hosted Min Washington, a flagship weekly show which looks at US political, cultural and economic issues and how they impact the Middle East region and well beyond. The LA Times once described him as The Aljazeera’s US Translator. Part of his passion has been to translate the American political system and its language to foreign audiences. When renders words such as “Gerrymandering” or “Maverick” for example for a foreign audience he tries to translate both the complexity of the American political system and the American sensibility which goes with it. He has made it an essential part of his journalism to help Middle Eastern audiences understand how those elements work in times of peace and war. He has interviewed a wide range of US policy-makers including Jared Kushner, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Gates and many others.
Dr. Foukara has also been a frequent voice in the US media and other venues where he skillfully translates the complexity of politics and culture in the Middle East to American audiences. He is well versed in the complex nature of relations between the United States and the Middle East region. His long experience in journalism in the United States has also given him a unique perspective on the US media scene and where it connects with or diverges from its counterparts elsewhere in the world.
