Assala Khettache

Assala Khettache is a third-year doctoral candidate in International Politics at Aberystwyth University. Her research focuses on the activities of Russian private military companies in North Africa and the Sahel, with particular emphasis on their weaponisation of collective moral injuries. Her work is grounded in fieldwork across the region.

Assala holds a BA in International Relations from Algeria and an MA from the Social Sciences University of Ankara. She also completed an Erasmus fellowship at the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London, where she examined Libyan perceptions of Russia’s Wagner Group. She currently consults for RUSI, contributing to the project on the Wagner Group and Russia’s presence in Africa and the Middle East, and chairs the Postgraduate Network of the British International Studies Association.