Istituto Affari Internazionali (Project Coordinating Institution)

The Istituto Affari Internazionali, founded in 1965 by Altiero Spinelli as a non-profit organisation, is Italy’s major international affairs research centre, as well as being the Italian research institute with the most developed international network capabilities. The Institute’s mission is to promote the understanding of international relations through inter-disciplinary and policy-oriented research and meetings. Its main areas of interest are: Italian foreign policy, European integration and external relations, transatlantic relations, the Mediterranean and Middle East, international security and international political economy. IAI participates in or coordinates numerous research projects, several of which have been financed by the Commission (MICROCON, EU4SEAS, MERCURY, MEDPRO, CORE, EU-US, TRNSWORLD, POWER2YOUTH). IAI regularly organises dissemination events, including conferences, workshops and guest lectures, and disseminates research results through regular publication outlets including its peer-reviewed English-language journal (The International Spectator, Routledge), its on-line magazine (AffarInternazionali.it), its yearbook (L’Italia e la Politica Internazionale, il Mulino), its monographs (IAI Quaderni) and its working paper series (DocIAI). IAI’s research activities are supported by the library containing over 24,000 volumes/periodicals, with approximately 1,000 new acquisitions per year catalogued on-line.

Persons involved in the project

M. Cristina Paciello, POWER2YOUTH coordinator, is senior fellow at the Mediterranean and Middle East Programme of the International Affairs Institute (IAI) and adjunct professor at the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice (Political Economy of Islamic Countries and Economic Policies of Arab countries). As a political economist with knowledge of Arabic, she has conducted extensive research on the Middle East and North Africa for several international institutions. She received her MSc in Development Studies from SOAS in London and her PhD in Political Economy of Developing Countries from the University of Florence. Her recent publications have focused on analysis of socio-economic policies in the post 2011 uprising phase in Egypt and Tunisia.

Daniela Pioppi, POWER2YOUTH coordinator, is senior fellow at the Mediterranean and Middle East Programme of the International Affairs Institute (IAI, Rome) and associate professor of contemporary history of Arab countries at "L’Orientale" University of Naples. Her main research interests are comparative politics of the Middle East and North Africa. Trained as an Arabist and a political
scientist (MA Middle Eastern Studies, SOAS, University of London; PhD in Political Science, University of Pisa), she is the author of one monograph, several edited volumes and numerous peer-reviewed articles, academic and policy papers and chapters in edited volumes. She has coordinated several international projects.

Silvia Colombo is research fellow at the Mediterranean and Middle East Programme of the International Affairs Institute (IAI, Rome). She is an expert on Middle Eastern politics and in this capacity she is working on Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, transatlantic relations in the Mediterranean and domestic and regional politics in the Arab World. Among her research interests there are also the relations between the European Union and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Politics from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (Florence Branch) and a Master's Degree in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.

Daniela Huber is research fellow at the Mediterranean and Middle East Programme of the International Affairs Institute (IAI, Rome). She holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an M.A. degree in International Relations from the Free University of Berlin. Her research interests include EU and US foreign policies in the Middle East and North Africa, democracy promotion and democratizations, the European neighbourhood, and Israel/Palestine. She has worked for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Tel Aviv and Berlin and as a Carlo Schmid Fellow at the United Nations in Copenhagen.

Renata Pepicelli is research fellow at the Mediterranean and Middle East Programme of the International Affairs Institute (IAI, Rome). She holds a Ph.D in 'Geopolitics and cultures of the Mediterranean” (Sum – Federico II, University of Naples). From 2008 to 2014 she had a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna. In 2014 she got the scientific qualification as Associate Professor in the field “Cultures of Near East, Middle East and Africa” (National Italian procedure). Dr Pepicelli is an expert on Islamic Studies and Gender Studies. She focuses her research on MENA region and Europe, with a special emphasis on the recent evolution of Islamist movements/parties.

Other persons involved in the research team at IAI are: Nathalie Tocci, IAI’s Deputy Director, Andrea Dessì, a researcher at the Mediterranean-Middle East programme of the institute and Professor Laura Guazzone,  senior associate of the institute.

Main tasks attributed to IAI

-POWER2YOUTH Coordinating Institution

-Leader of WP1, WP6, WP8, WP9

-Partner in WP2