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RusLab

The Russia Observatory (RUSLAB) is a dedicated research hub for the study of Russia, its domestic politics, historical trajectories, and international role, combining academic rigour with policy-relevant analysis and public-facing outputs. The research is situated within the broader debate on post-liberal contestation and the transformation of the international order.

RuLAB’s work aims to integrate close analysis of domestic governance, political economy, and social dynamics with a strong historical perspective rooted in Soviet and imperial legacies. It also examines how past institutional configurations, political cultures, and identity narratives continue to shape contemporary Russian politics and society.

Thematically, the Observatory covers four main interconnected areas:

Domestic politics and society — governance structures, center–periphery relations, regional identities, social stratification, ideological, religious and cultural evolutions, and the interaction between elites and the Russian society.
Russia–Europe relations — historical entanglements, energy interdependence, security architecture, and the reconfiguration of ties under war and sanctions.
The Eurasian space — relations with neighboring states, regional integration, and alignments involving China, Turkey, India, and other major Global South actors.
Global footprint — Russia’s political, economic, and security presence in Africa, the Middle East, and Russia’s role in reshaping the broader international order.

Head of Unit

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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.
Marc Reverdin

Marc Reverdin is an international expert in public affairs and strategic diplomacy. He is the founder and CEO of Reverdin Consulting, a high-level advisory firm that helps companies and institutions navigate major geopolitical, economic, and environmental challenges. A former French diplomat, he served in Paris, Rome, and the services of the French Prime Minister before co-founding the Paris Peace Forum, an initiative of the French President launched in 2018. He now leads or advises several international initiatives, particularly in the agrifood, African, and Mediterranean sectors. Marc is also a frequent speaker, high-level moderator, and lecturer in international affairs.
Marco Massoni

Marco Massoni (PhD, Rome 1972) is an independent political analyst and international relations expert, specialist in Africa, Latin America, and Extra-Western philosophies. Since 2022, he has been teaching African Studies at LUISS University of Rome. As of 2025, he directs the Africa and Latin America Research Unit at LUISS’s Centre for International and Strategic Studies (CISS). Previously, he served as Diplomatic Senior Advisor for the Italian G8 Presidency and worked with the EU, OSCE, UN (FAO, UNHCR), NGOs, and think tanks. From 2011 to 2017, he was Director of African Research at IRAD at the Italian Centre for Defence Higher Studies (CASD), where he still lectures. He was Editorial Director of the quarterly Politica Africana. He has taught Development Studies at The American University of Rome (AUR) and International Law and Peace Processes at Roma Tre University. He is a consultant of the European Union External Action Service (EEAS) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), extensive experience in the field of democratisation processes, electoral observation & electoral assistance, diplomacy & negotiation, cyber-diplomacy, human rights & humanitarian law, mediation, peacebuilding & conflict resolution, post-war reconstruction and strategic studies.
Maria Giulia Amadio Viceré

Maria Giulia Amadio Vicerè is Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) in Political Science at the Department of Political Science of Luiss University and a Visiting Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (EUI). Before that, she has been a Marie Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (EUI), an Adjunct Professor and post-doctoral fellow at Luiss University, and an Assistant Professor at Leiden University. She held various visiting positions in international renowned institutions, among which the German Institute for International Affairs, the Centre for European Studies at Harvard University, the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, and the Policy Institute at King’s College. Over time, she has also been the recipient of merit-based scholarships and grants from the European Commission; the Zegna Group; the Lazio Region; and the The Australian Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethic. Beyond academia, she has been a Research Associate at the Istituto Affari Internazionali, a Research Fellow at the Policy Planning Unit of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, a Blue Book Trainee at the Service for Foreign Policy Instrument of the European Commission and a research intern at the European Policy Centre. Moreover, she has briefed and provided training to public and private institutions, among which the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Italian Ministry of Defence, Oxford Analytica, the European Institute for the Mediterranean, the Swedish Institute for European Studies, the Foundation for European Progressive Studies, Villa Vigoni, and il Sole 24 Ore Business School.
Marlène Agnès Laruelle

Marlene Laruelle is a Full Professor of Political Science at Luiss Guido Carli University and previously served as Research Professor at The George Washington University’s Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES) from 2011 to 2025, where she held leadership roles as Associate Director and Director. She earned her Ph.D. in History from INALCO in Paris and a habilitation in Political Science from Sciences Po Paris. Laruelle leads the Illiberalism Studies Program, a transatlantic platform dedicated to research on illiberalism and postliberalism, and is a non-residential Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center. Throughout her career, she has held fellowships and visiting appointments at notable institutions such as the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna, IFRI, the Carnegie Council, the Woodrow Wilson Center, and SAIS–Johns Hopkins University. She has authored or edited over twenty books with top academic presses, including recent monographs like Ideology and Meaning-Making under Putin Regime (2025) and Russia’s Arctic: A Changing Geopolitical and Environmental Context (2026), alongside numerous articles in leading scholarly and policy publications.

Trained as a historian of ideas, Laruelle’s early work focused on post-Soviet Central Asia and Russia, examining nation-building processes, regional geopolitics, labor migration, and the intellectual underpinnings of Putin’s regime. Her research later expanded to the Russian Arctic, exploring how environmental change, infrastructure development, and territorial imaginaries influence political worldviews. More recently, she has turned to conceptual history and global comparative studies, analyzing the challenges facing liberalism and the emerging normative alternatives to the liberal international order. Her scholarship bridges academic rigor with policy relevance, offering insights into the evolving political and intellectual dynamics of Russia and the broader international system.
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Researcher

Ilaria Lorusso

Ilaria Lorusso is a PhD candidate in Politics at LUISS Guido Carli. Her research focuses on EU external action, particularly in migration policy, and on the role of gender in EU foreign policy. She holds a Research Master in European Studies from Maastricht University, where she also held the role of research assistant within the EU-funded PhD program “LIMES – The Hardening and Softening of Borders: Europe in a Globalizing World” and later of teaching fellow for the European Studies and Global Studies programs. She is currently a teaching assistant at LUISS.
Ilaria Tani

Attorney-at-Law in Milan (Italy). Associate Professor of International Law of the Sea, Ocean Affairs Law and Policy, Maritime Law (Master courses), and Polar Law (PhD course) at University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy). Deputy-Director of the PhD programme in Marine Sciences, Technology and Management at University of Milano-Bicocca and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). Scientific Advisor to the Italian Navy since 2023. Visiting Fellow at Center of Maritime Military Studies, Venice, since 2026. Visiting lecturer at NATO Defense College and other higher education institutions. Member of the Italian Delegation in United Nations’ and International Hydrographic Organization’s working groups, negotiations, and processes related to the law of the sea, including its technical aspects. Legal consultant for States, private sector, and international secretariats on matters related to the law of the sea. Former Associate Legal Officer at the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs, United Nations (UNDOALOS, New York, United States).
Irene Olmi

Irene Olmi joined Reverdin Consulting in April 2025 as a consultant, specialising in the agrifood sector and contributing to the firm’s work on sustainable food systems and multilateral organizations. Within CISS, she supports Marc Reverdin as a Strategic Advisor in the Agrifood Unit. Irene previously worked as an EU Policy Consultant in Brussels with a focus on the agrifood, tech, and defence sectors. She holds two Master’s degrees from SOAS, University of London, in International Politics and Diplomatic Studies.
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Ivan Cardillo

Ivan Cardillo is an Adjunct Professor at China University of Political Science and Law and a Senior Advisor to the ‘Faren’ Think Tank of the Chinese Ministry of Justice. He is also the Director of the Institute of Chinese Law and Chairman of the Italy-China Business Development Forum. Cardillo serves as a scientific expert for the Knowledge Network on China and the EU-China Research and Innovation Dialogue at the European Commission. He has been appointed as an Arbitrator at the Weihai Court of International Arbitration and frequently serves as an expert witness in U.S. judicial cases involving China-related issues. With a background in teaching Chinese law at institutions such as the University of Trento and the University of Eastern Piedmont, Cardillo has published extensively on various aspects of Chinese law. He recently co-edited the book The Chinese Civil Code in the Global Legal Order: Inner and Outer Perspectives (Brill, 2024).
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.
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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
Jorge Viñuales

Professor Jorge E. Viñuales is the Harold Samuel Chair of Law and Environmental Policy at the University of Cambridge and a Professor of International Law at LUISS. In Cambridge, he founded Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG). He is also a Member of the Institut de Droit International, the Chairman of the Compliance Committee of the UNECE/WHO Protocol on Water and Health, the co-General Editor of the ICSID Reports, the General Editor of the Cambridge Studies on Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Governance and a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of ICSID, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center and other institutions. Jorge has published widely in his specialty areas, including several reference works, such as The International Law of Energy (2022), the ICSID Reports (since 2018), International Environmental Law (2018) and The Foundations of International Investment Law (2014). His research has ranked him in Stanford University’s 2022 World Top 2% scientists list for research quality and impact. Jorge also has a wide portfolio of practice in transactional, pre-litigation and litigation matters, including as arbitrator, expert, counsel, co-counsel and policy advisor. He received his education in France (PhD, Sciences Po, Paris), the United States (LL.M. Harvard), Switzerland (LL.B, Freiburg; B.A., M.A., Geneva; B.A. M.A. IUHEI) and Argentina (LL.B. Unicen). He is a native Spanish speaker and is fluent in English, French and Italian.
Jose Carlos Mariátegui

Writer, curator, scholar and entrepreneur on culture, and technology. Dr. Mariátegui is the founder of Alta Tecnología Andina – ATA, an organization working at the intersection of art, science, technology and society in Latin America. His multidisciplinary research embraces media archaeology, digitization, archives and the impact of technology in memory institutions. He is a Lecturer at LUISS (Rome) and a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Media and Communications at the LSE. He is a Board Member of Future Everything (UK) and chairs the Education Committee at the Museo de Arte de Lima – MALI. Has published in journals such as AI & Society, Third Text, The Information Society, Telos and Leonardo and curated art and technology projects internationally for more than two decades.