Maria Luisa Fantappiè is the responsible for the Mediterranean, Middle-East and Africa program of the IAI. She was the special counsellor for Middle-East and North Africa for the Humanitarian Dialogue Center in Geneva (2020-2023) and at the International Crisis Group (ICG) of Bruxelles (2012-2020). In these functions, she confronted the highest political authorities in Europe, United States and in the Middle East countries (Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Oman, Arab United Emirates). In 2018 she represented Italy in the European Mission for the security sector’s reform in Iraq (EUAM). Her scientific interests are the Middle East, European diplomacy and the competition between countries of this region, as well as the conflict’s mediation, even through cultural diplomacy. Visiting scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center (2012) and now affiliated to the London School of Economics, the Middle East Center and the Institut Français du Proche Orient. Among her recent publications: Politicians, Officers and Political Transition in Post-2003 Iraq, Third World Quarterly, 2023 (author); The Routledge Handbook of EU-Middle East Relations, Routledge, 2022 (co-author); Faith and Fracture, The Century Foundation 2023 (co-author); Citizenship and its discontents: the struggle for rights, pluralism and inclusion in the Middle East(co-author), The Century Foundation 2019. Moreover, she was the author of more than 20 reports of the Crisis Group based on research in the field. She published with Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, La Repubblica and was often pushed for comments by the New York Times, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Al-Jazeera, NPR e Radio 3 Mondo.