Daniela Pioppi is associate professor of contemporary history of Arab countries at L'Orientale University of Naples. Trained as an Arabist and a political scientist (first degree in Oriental Studies, University of Rome 'La Sapienza', MA in comparative politics of the Middle East, SOAS, London University, and PhD in Political Science at the University of Pisa), she has a vast experience of field research in the Arab world. Her main research interests are comparative politics of the Middle East and North Africa region with a special emphasis on the recent evolution of Islamist movements/parties. She has directed several international research projects and she was Senior Fellow at the Mediterranean and Middle East Programme of the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI).

Laura Guazzone is Associate Professor of History of the Contemporary Arab World at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Rome La Sapienza. Trained as Arabist and expert of regional security, her main research interests are the comparative politics and international relations of the North Africa and Middle East countries. She was Senior Research Fellow of the International Affairs Institute where she directed several research projects, among which: Israeli-Palestinian Peace Research Project; The Political Role of Islamist Movements in Contemporary Arab World Project; The Middle East in Global Change Project. She is member of the editorial board of The International Spectator and of the international scientific board of Maghreb-Mashrek.

Andrea Dessì is Assistant Professor in International Relations and Global Politics at the American University of Rome (AUR). He previously headed IAI's "Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa" programme and "Italian foreign policy" programme. Andrea has worked extensively on US and European foreign policy towards the Middle East with a particular focus on the diplomatic and military history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, US policy towards Israel and Washington’s alliance frameworks in the Middle East. His research interests include security studies, the geopolitics of the Middle East and the intersection between global and regional trends and developments. Andrea holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with a thesis on the US-Israel relationship during the 1980s. He worked with IAI between 2011-2023 and has contributed to a number of EU-funded projects and research tasks (FP7 & H2020).

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.