Home > Research Unit > ItaFS

ItaFS

The Italian Foreign Policy and Security Laboratory (ItaFS) research unit at the Center for International Strategic Studies at Luiss Guido Carli, dedicates itself to understanding and advancing Italian national interest in a complex global environment. This specialized unit emphasizes strategic foresight by researching on the latest global trends and by providing scenario and political risk analyses for various stakeholders both governmental and non-governmental.

Comprised of a blend of senior and junior researchers, each with diverse institutional affiliations, the ISFD team offers a broad yet in-depth understanding of global politics. Their expertise spans from security issues and the evolving impact of technological advancements on international relations to diplomatic studies and foreign policy analysis. This multidisciplinary approach enables the unit to foresee and interpret the dynamic interplay between current national and international issues and geopolitical shifts, a crucial factor for promoting a better-informed Italy’s foreign policy.

The unit aims to gather information and insights on the impact of the so-called emerging and disruptive technologies, including military drones, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, cloud computing, robotics, and autonomous systems, as well as on trends in military innovation and the defense market. The unit analyses the potential impact of these technologies and trends on the military and security sectors, including their effects at the strategic, operational, and tactical level, as well as their general implications in great power competition.

A focal point of the ItaSecLAB is also its work is hybrid diplomacy, a conceptualization of the diplomatic effort that sees the systematic engagement of various stakeholders besides the governmental bodies in drafting and acting in Foreign Policy. By actively engaging with the government at the national and local levels and with actors from the private the third sector, the unit studies and develops alternative strategies to the government-to-government diplomacy. Besides the analytical part, the Unit regularly organizes events to facilitate the communication and the synergy among these foreign policy actors.

Head of Unit

  • Raffaele Marchetti

    Raffaele Marchetti (Laurea, Rome-La Sapienza; PhD, London-LSE) is Deputy Rector for Internationalization and Professor in International Relations at the Department of Political Science and the School of Government of LUISS. His research interest concerns global politics and governance, hybrid and city diplomacy, transnational civil society, (cyber-)security and political risk, and democracy.

    He acts as external expert for the European Commission and other public/private institutions on issues of global governance, public policies, civil society, and security. He is ISA’s United Nations-NGO Representative (2022-2024). He is also member of the editorial board of The International Spectator, the Academic Advisory Board of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), LabGov – the LABoratory for the GOVernance of the City as a Commons,  International Institute for Social and Economic Studies (IISES). He is the editor of the Routledge series Innovations in International Affairs and the Luiss University Press series Radar.

Researcher

  • Michele Pertosa

    Michele Pertosa is a PhD Candidate in Politics and Teaching Assistant in bachelor’s and master’s level courses at Luiss Guido Carli University. His research focuses on Foreign Policy Analysis and Transatlantic Relations.

    Before joining academia, he gained professional experience at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, where he worked on technology, security, and defence policies in the context of European Strategic Autonomy. He also served as a Public Sector Analyst at Deloitte Consulting, assisting Italian regional authorities in the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

    Michele holds a Second Level Master’s degree in Diplomatic Studies from SIOI and graduated magna cum laude from a Double Master’s Degree program in International Relations (Luiss Guido Carli) and European Studies (University of Salzburg). His academic interests focus on processes of foreign policy change and the role of expert communities in shaping decision-making within international affairs.

  • Petrelli

    Niccolò Petrelli

    Niccolò Petrelli is Assistant Professor of Strategic Studies at the Department of Political Sciences, Roma Tre University, where he received his PhD in Politics in 2013. His research focuses on intelligence, national security, and defense capabilities. His X account is @NiccoloPetrelli.
  • Nicola Scaraggi

    Nicola Scaraggi

    Nicola Scaraggi is a Master’s student in International Relations at LUISS University in Rome, specializing in Security Studies, with academic experience at George Mason University in Washington, D.C., where he focused on Intelligence and Cybercrime. He holds a B.A. in Political Science, with research centered on climate security and conflict dynamics.

    He serves at the Operations in the Information Environment (OIE) desk of the Irregular Warfare Center, conducting analysis on Open Source Intelligence and cognitive warfare.

    Previously, he interned at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation – Directorate General for Political and Security Affairs – supporting research and strategic assessment on issues affecting Italy’s national security and foreign policy.

    His broader interests include hybrid warfare and the intersection between intelligence, technology, and global politics.

  • Sofia Eliodori

    Sofia Eliodori earned her Ph.D. in International Relations from the University for Foreigners of Perugia in 2022. Currently, she is collaborating with the Law department of LUISS Guido Carli as a Postdoctoral Fellow, engaged in the Horizon project EUARENAS, focusing on the democratic dynamics in cities. Her primary area of interest lies in understanding the intricacies of United States domestic and foreign policy, Atlantic relations, and Italy-US relations. She’s also attentive to populism, diasporas, public communication and public diplomacy.

  • Ivan Zaccagnini

    Ivan Zaccagnini

    Ivan Zaccagnini is a PhD candidate and a teaching assistant in the Department of Political Science at LUISS Guido Carli University. He is enrolled in a joint PhD program between LUISS and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He received his MA in International Relations from Rome Tre University in 2019. His research interests focus on emerging and disruptive technologies and future of war. His Twitter account is @ZaccagniniIvan.

  • Jean-Pierre Darnis

    Jean-Pierre Darnis (MA Université Toulouse, Université Paris X; PhD Université Paris X Nanterre) teaches Contemporary History at LUISS.  A full professor at the Université Côte d’Azur (Nice, France), he directs the master’s degree program in French-Italian relations. He coordinates the research program “France, Italy and their Mediterraneans” in the CMMC (Centre de la Mediterranee Moderne et Contemporaine) in Nice and is a member of the scientific council of the Courtyard of the Gentiles (Pontifical Council for Culture) in Rome. He is also an associate fellow of the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (FRS, Paris). He was previously director of the Security, Defense, Space program at the International Affairs Institute (IAI) in Rome, and there created the Technology and International Relations program. Email : jpdarnis@luiss.it

  • Manfredi Valeriani

    Manfredi Valeriani

    Manfredi Valeriani earned his PhD at Hamburg University and Luiss University with a thesis on “Funding Instruments to Italian NGOs” is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Luiss where he also teaches Political Risk Analysis and International Politics and Businesses. He has been Adjunct Professor at the University “L’Orientale” in Naples and at the American University of Rome. His research currently focuses on Structured Analytic Techniques, Scenario Analysis, and Italian Foreign Policy.

  • Elvira Simonelli

    Elvira Simonelli

    Elvira Simonelli is a master student in International Relations at LUISS University in Rome, with an academic experience at the University of Exeter, UK. She holds a B.A. in Political Science, culminating in research centred on US Foreign Policy analysis towards Israel.

    Her academic interests lie at the intersection of strategic studies and communication, with a specific focus on the Middle East and the evolving dynamics of geopolitical security.

  • Emidio Diodato

    Emidio Diodato

    Emidio Diodato is Professor of Political Science at the University for Foreigners of Perugia. He has held teaching and research positions at several international institutions, including the University of Damascus, Boğaziçi University (Istanbul), Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Mendoza), Odessa Law Academy, BTU Cottbus, Yaşar University (Izmir), and the University of Rhode Island. His research, which examines foreign policy and geopolitics from both theoretical and comparative perspectives, has been published in leading international journals such as Contemporary Politics, The International Spectator, Journal of Common Market Studies, and Contemporary Italian Politics. He is the author or co-author of more than seventy scholarly publications, including numerous essays and books. Among his works on Italian foreign policy, two volumes published by Palgrave stand out: Italy in International Relations: The Foreign Policy Conundrum (2017) and Berlusconi “The Diplomat”: Populism and Foreign Policy in Italy (2019). On the same subject, he published the Handbook of Italian Foreign Policy (in Italian, Il Mulino). He has also served as the scientific coordinator of three research projects funded by the European Union.

  • Giacomo Leccese

    Giacomo Leccese currently serves as Subject Expert for the course of Strategic Studies in the Department of Political Science at LUISS University. He holds a Second Level Master in Intelligence and Emerging Technologies from the Centro Alti Studi per la Difesa (CASD) of the Italian Ministry of Defense and the University of Udine, and an M.A. in International Relations from LUISS. He had previous professional experience at the Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Training Center (CIFIGE) of the Italian Defense General Staff, the Analysis and Planning Unit of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAECI) and for the Permanent Mission of Italy to the UN in New York.

    His research interests include security studies, intelligence, and emerging technologies, with a particular focus on the maritime and air domains. On these topics, he will soon participate in a joint research program between the University of Cambridge and the Department of War Studies at King’s College.