The Islamic Connection: South Asia And The Gulf About the Author Laurence Louër is a researcher at Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI) in Paris. She is an Arabist and specializes in Middle-Eastern studies.Christophe Jaffrelot is a senior research fellow at CERI and the author of the critically acclaimed The Pakistan Paradox: Instability and Resilience as well as the editor of Pakistan at the Crossroads: Domestic Dynamics and External Pressures.