Cinzia Bianco is a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, based in Berlin, Germany, where she works on political, security, and economic developments in the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf region and relations with Europe. Additionally, she is a senior analyst at Gulf State Analytics. Previously, Bianco was a research fellow for the European Commission’s project on EU-Gulf Arab relations, “Sharaka,” between 2013 and 2014. She holds an MA in Middle East and Mediterranean studies from King’s College London and a PhD in Middle East politics from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, where she worked on threat perceptions in the Gulf Arab states after the 2011 Arab uprisings.