Arturo Varvelli

Arturo Varvelli is a senior research fellow and co-head of the Middle East and North Africa Center at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI). He is also a lecturer of History and Institutions of the Middle East at IULM University in Milan and a visiting fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy (EFD) in Brussels. He works as a scholar on topics such as Italian-Libyan relations, Libyan domestic and foreign politics, Italian foreign policy in the Middle East and Mediterranean region, and jihadist groups in North Africa; he has published both books and articles on these subjects. Dr. Varvelli has served on research projects commissioned by the research office of the Italian Chamber of Representatives and Senate, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the European Parliament and Commission. In 2015, he was chosen by the US State Department to take part in the “International Visitor Leadership Program”. He holds a PhD in International History from the University of Milan, where he worked as a lecturer in History of International Relations. Afterwards, he was a post-PhD fellow at the CRT Foundation in Turin, Italy.