Matteo Legrenzi is a professor of international relations at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He holds a DPhil in international Relations and an MPhil in modern Middle Eastern studies from St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford. Legrenzi served as president of the Italian Association for Middle Eastern Studies. He studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo and has published numerous articles and book chapters on Arab monarchies and the international relations of the Gulf as well as writing a column on Middle East politics for the Italian journal Il Mulino. Legrenzi has written two books: The GCC and the International Relations of the Gulf: Diplomacy, Security and Economic Coordination in a Changing Middle East  (I.B. Tauris) and Cognitive Analysis of Decisionmaking: The Case of Israel in October 1973 Conflict (Vita e Pensiero, Milan Catholic University Press). He also edited three volumes: Beyond Regionalism? Regional Cooperation, Regionalism and Regionalization in the Middle East; Shifting Geo-Economic Power of the Gulf: Oil, Finance and Institutions; and Gulf Security: Legacies of the Past, Prospects for the Future. Before returning to his hometown of Venice, Legrenzi taught in Oxford, Ottawa, and Seoul, winning the Capital Educators’ Award in 2009 in Canada. He deals with international relations and comparative government of the Middle East, in particular the political economy, regionalism, and security of the Arab monarchies.