Maria Luisa Fantappie is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Center. She holds an MPhil with distinction from Sciences Po Paris (2009) and a PhD from King’s College, London (Department of War Studies). Her research explores informal power in post-conflict and post-authoritarian settings. Her recent publications include “Politicians, officers and political transition: the case of post-2003 Iraq”, Third World Quarterly, building a conceptual understanding of politician-officers person relations and their role in defining political order in post-invasion Iraq.   

Maria has served as Senior Adviser at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and International Crisis Group conducting fieldwork across Iraq and the Middle East for over a decade. In 2018, she was seconded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a Strategic Adviser to the EU Mission security sector reform in Baghdad. She is currently Head of the Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa Program at the Instituto Affari Internazionali in Rome.