Roberto Aliboni was IAI general director and vice-president. He taught International Economics at the Universities of Naples and Perugia from 1972 to 1979 and held research positions in different Institutes. In 1994, he conceived of and successfully established the Mediterranean Study Commission (MeSCo), the network of Mediterranean Institutes dealing with international and security affairs, transformed in EuroMeSCo in 1996.

Azzurra Meringolo is journalist at the foreign desk of the Giornale Radio Rai, where she mainly deals with Middle Eastern issues. She was a member of the editorial board of the IAI’s webzine AffarInternazionali. She holds a PhD in International Relations and is Adjunct Professor at the Università Roma Tre. Contributor to national and international newspapers, she was scientific coordinator of the Arab Media Report and presenter of Radio 3 Mondo (Rai3). In 2012 she won the Ivan Bonfanti journalism award and her doctoral thesis on Egyptian anti-Americanism was awarded the Maria Grazia Cutuli prize. In 2013 she won the Indro Montanelli writing prize with her book I ragazzi di piazza Tahrir and in 2014 the Franco Cuomo International Award (nonfiction section).She is founder and member of the Scientific Committee of WIIS Italy and member of the German Marshall Fund Leadership Council. Follow her on her blog and on twitter at @ragazzitahrir.

Daniela Huber Daniela Huber is Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department of Roma Tre University. She is scientific advisor of the IAI's "Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa" programme, which she had led from 2019 to 2022, and co-editor of The International Spectator.

Previously at IAI she has scientifically coordinated the EU funded Horizon 2020 project MEDRESET (2016-2019), and has been involved as co-workpackage leader in the Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 projects SHAPEDEM-EU, BRIDGES, EU-LISTCO, as well as the Jean-Monnet Network EUMENIA.

Her research interests include IR theories and methodologies, international relations and contemporary politics in the Middle East, as well as EU and US foreign policy towards and their role in conflicts in the Middle East. On these issues, she has published two monographs (Palgrave and State University of New York Press), 15 peer-reviewed articles, 7 edited books, 6 book chapters and numerous research papers and commentaries. She has worked for the United Nations and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in the Middle East and has pursued extensive field research in the region as she lived for five years in Jerusalem, and organised/participated in workshops and conferences in Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.

Silvia Colombo is Associate Fellow in the "Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa" programme at IAI. She is also a Researcher and Faculty Advisor at the NATO Defense College in Rome. Her research work focuses on contemporary politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the EU and US foreign policy towards and their role in conflicts in the Middle East as well as the implications for NATO. Among her research interests there are also the relations between the EU and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. On these issues, she has published one monograph (Routledge), 6 peer-reviewed articles, 11 edited books, 10 book chapters and numerous research papers and commentaries. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Politics from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and a Master’s Degree in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Sha has taught at the Centre International de Formation Européenne (CIFE), Nice – Tunis – Istanbul, and has given lectures and seminars in the fields of comparative politics and international relations of the MENA in several academic institutions as well as has organized/participated in policy workshops and conferences both in Europe and in the MENA countries. She has pursued extensive fieldwork in the MENA region and speaks Arabic fluently.

Nathalie Tocci is Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, part-time professor at the School of Transnational Governance (European University Institute), Honorary Professor at the University of Tübingen and independent non-executive director of the multi utility company Acea. She has been Special Advisor to EU High Representatives Federica Mogherini and Josep Borrell. In that capacity, she wrote the European Global Strategy and worked on its implementation.
She is Europe’s Futures fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, IWM). She was Pierre Keller Visiting Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and, prior to joining Acea, she was independent board member first of Edison and then of Eni. She has held research positions at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, the Transatlantic Academy, Washington, the European University Institute, Florence, and has taught at the College of Europe, Bruges.
Her research interests include European integration and European foreign policy, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, transatlantic relations, multilateralism, conflict resolution, energy, climate and defence.
Her major publications include: Framing the EU's Global Strategy, Springer-Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 (author); The EU, Promoting Regional Integration, and Conflict Resolution, Springer-Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 (co-editor); Turkey and the European Union, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 (co-author); Multilateralism in the 21st Century, Routledge, 2013 (co-editor), Turkey’s European Future: Behind the Scenes of America’s Influence on EU-Turkey Relations, New York University Press, 2011 (author); and The EU and Conflict Resolution, Routledge, 2007 (author); A Green and Global Europe, Polity, 2022 (author).
Nathalie is a frequent media commentator, with regular op-eds in Politico Europe, La Stampa and The Guardian, as well as being a regular panellist on BBC’s “The Context”. She has published in Foreign Affairs, El Pais, Project Syndicate, and is often interviewed by major international television and newspaper outlets, including Al Jazeera, BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Euronews, PBS, Sky, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, El Pais, Le Monde, Deutsche Welle, amongst others.
She is represented by Chartwell Speakers and Elastica.