Nizar Manek is Founder and Managing Director of Periplus Research, a London-based strategy and disputes advisory firm for frontier and emerging economies, rooted in the Track II tradition.

Before founding Periplus, built proprietary methodology, interlocutor and coordination networks, and legal and compliance protocols underpinning hundreds of engagements across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia—for top-tier strategic intelligence and disputes advisory firms, international arbitration practices, development finance institutions, and European foreign ministries. Member, UN Security Council Affairs Division Pool of Experts. Mandates spanning subsea cable transit rights, telecoms market entry, upstream M&A positioning, mining portfolio monitoring, and cross-border concession liability.

Earlier career as a correspondent for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, and Africa Confidential, covering the Horn of Africa and Red Sea, Middle East and North Africa, and West Africa and Sahel over eight years, with work in the Financial Times, Jane's Intelligence Review, Foreign Affairs, Le Monde Diplomatique, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, and London Review of Books. Academic work on political economy and ethnography with Harvard’s Center for International Development; citations from the European Press Prize, Overseas Press Club of America, Foreign Press Association in London, Transparency International. Education: LSE, Columbia Law and Business Schools, SOAS. Based in London; previously Addis Ababa, Cairo, Tunis, Istanbul, Yerevan, Athens.