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EcoSecLab

The Economic Security Laboratory (EcoSecLab) studies where national security, economic resilience and the business ecosystem meet. The perimeter of national security has widened: energy, telecommunications, data, semiconductors, ports, cloud computing, biotechnology and artificial intelligence are now matters of national security and drivers of European strategic competitiveness. The boundary between the state and the market is being redrawn.
Great-power competition, geopolitical fragmentation, supply chain vulnerabilities and economic coercion now shape the environment in which companies operate. EcoSecLab examines how geopolitical risk is assessed, managed and translated into the protection of strategic interests. Its research follows three lines:

The regulatory framework of the new security perimeter: investment screening, export controls, critical technologies and critical infrastructure.
The public-private nexus: the evolving responsibilities of public authorities and companies, and the instruments that coordinate them.
The implications for companies in strategic sectors: exposure to hybrid threats and economic coercion, and the integration of geopolitical intelligence and early warning into corporate governance.
EcoSecLab pays particular attention to the asymmetries between authoritarian systems and liberal democracies. It studies how democracies can build a public-private relationship that restores their competitiveness while preserving economic and political freedom. Its focus is Italy, within its European and transatlantic context.

The Laboratory works across international relations, law and economics, and directly with institutions, companies and practitioners. Its aim is to support awareness, preparedness and informed decision-making in the public and private sectors.

Head of Unit

  • Beniamino Irdi

    Beniamino Irdi

    Beniamino Irdi is a nonresident senior fellow with GMF’s Global Power Shifts team. His areas of expertise include the geopolitics of the Mediterranean, great-power competition, democratic resilience, and hybrid threats. He is the founder and chief executive officer of HighGround, a political-risk consulting firm based in Milan and Rome.

    Irdi spent 17 years in the Italian government focused on foreign policy, national security, and strategic affairs. While in government, he worked in the prime minister’s office, where he advised senior government officials on great-power competition, foreign malign influence, and Russia’s war in Ukraine. He also served as special adviser to Italy’s foreign minister and was posted to Italian embassies in Tokyo and Washington, DC.

    Irdi began his career as Middle East analyst and is the author of a book that examines the use of military force against terrorist organizations.

    He holds a master’s degree in international policy and practice from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in international relations and strategic studies from Rome’s LUISS University. His quotes and analyses have appeared in outlets including Foreign Policy, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, The New York Times, and POLITICO.

Researcher