Biography

I am a student of international security, with a specialization in intelligence studies.
My doctoral dissertation explained how intelligence agencies work, how policymakers can control them and why these agencies sometimes do things they are not supposed to do, such as try to remove their own government.
My second, book-size research project will study intelligence cooperation in the Transatlantic community, trying to explain under which circumstances different institutional arrangements promote greater cooperation.
My research interests also include coercive diplomacy, diplomatic history and Machiavelli and the international relations of the Renaissance.
I first obtained a bachelor of arts from the University of Bologna, followed by a Master of Arts from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. In September 2010 I joined the PhD program in the Princeton Politics Department, successfully defending my dissertation five years later.
As a Princeton PhD candidate, I worked as teaching assistant for an undergraduate course on the Causes of War and two introductory courses to International Relations. I am currently a lecturer in an introductory politics course at the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari and a research fellow in the International Security program at New America, in Washington.