Bassem Bouguerra is a Tunisian software engineer, democracy activist, and non-resident fellow at the Middle East’s Rafik Hariri Center. In 2000, he left Tunisia’s Académie Militaire to study in California, and later launched a blog on Tunisia with his mother that was shut down in 2008. After Tunisia’s 2011 uprising, Bouguerra moved back home and started the Tunisian Institutional Reform (TIR), a group that pushes for improvements in the relationship between Tunisian citizens and the police. He has also helped found the MENA Regional Network for Security Development, a think tank that provides security sector reform strategies for the region. Bouguerra recently helped create Youth Can, a Tunisian grassroots movement to engage youth in politics and include them in political decision-making.