Silvia Colombo is a senior fellow in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Africa program at the Istituto Affari Internazionali. She is an expert on Middle Eastern politics and is working on Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, transatlantic relations in the Mediterranean, and domestic and regional politics in the Arab world. Her research interests include the relations between the European Union and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. She completed a traineeship at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London, where she worked mainly on Syria and Iraq. She holds a PhD in comparative politics from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (Florence Branch) and a master’s in Near and Middle Eastern studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She speaks Arabic fluently and has traveled extensively in the Middle East