Rafik Abdessalem

Rafik Ben Abdessalem Bouchlaka is a Tunisian politician. He serves as the minister of foreign affairs under Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali.

Abdessalem received a B.A. in philosophy from Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, and a PhD in politics and international relations from the University of Westminster in 2003.

From 1987 to 1990, Abdessalem was a member of the executive office of the Union Générale des Etudiants de Tunisie (UGET). In London, he founded the Maghreb Center for Research and Translation, and chaired the London Platform for Dialogue. He was also a visiting scholar at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He worked as senior researcher and head of the Research and Studies Office at the Al Jazeera Center for Studies. He is a member of the Centre Union Process. He has published two books and many articles in Asharq Al-Awsat.

He is a member of the Ennahda Movement, and the party leader Rached Ghannouchi's son-in-law. On 20 December 2011, after former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was deposed, he joined the Jebali Cabinet as minister of foreign affairs.