He is an associate professor of Political Science and International Relations at the Università Orientale in Naples. He recently worked for the United Nations World Food Programme on conflicts and food insecurity in North Africa, the Middle East, the Sahel, and Ukraine, and previously held positions at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2012-2013) and think tanks in Europe (ISPI, CEPS, SWP) and the United States (The Brookings Institution, Transatlantic Academy).
His areas of interest focus on the nature of the state, concepts of citizenship and democracy, with a particular focus on the Middle East and North Africa, relations between the state and security, regional security in general and the geopolitics of the Middle East and North Africa in particular, and European foreign and security policy.