Silvia Colombo

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.