Contents

The North Africa Middle East Politics and EU Security – NAMEPES Summer School will provide its participants with a deep understanding of the relations between the MENA region and the European Union in different aspects (geopolitics, international relations, economics, law).
Most of the Middle Eastern and North African countries (MENA) have spent a period of political instability in the last two decades. The region, most related to Europe for both historical reasons and geographical proximity, is one of the most complex and conflictual regions in the world. Inter-state and civil wars, terrorism, political instability and poverty have had repercussions both within the MENA borders and in the neighboring countries.
In addition to hosting important European trade routes, endowment in vast energy resources and the global energy supply security dependence give this region a greater strategic relevance.
The Summer School will also analyze in depth the domestic and foreign policy of the main regional players in the Middle Eastern politics by highlighting the role of institutions, civil society and political ideologies, particularly political Islam and nationalism.

2023 Edition and Program

The 2023 edition will take place at the School of International Studies of the University of Trento. It is co-funded by the International Master in Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies (IMSISS) from 27 June to 1 July. The Summer School is open to the students taking part in the IMSISS program. The Summer School Program is available at the bottom of this page.

On Saturday 1st a Roundtable is scheduled: full details of the Conference Program are available at the bottom of this page.

Project Outputs

Working papers 2023
•    Curzi, Michele. "Oman's far sighted foreign policy: how moderation can shape geopolitics"
•    Ullah, Zafar. "China's Emergence as Dominant Power in the MENA Region: A Smooth Sailing?"
•    Piovesan, Giorgia. "Climate Change, Security, and the Middle East: A Critical Review"
 

Workload and Credits

The Summer School lasts 5 full days (from Tuesday to Saturday). Participation to all the sessions is required to obtain the final Certificate of Participation.
Participants can opt to submit a final assignment to apply for 3 ECTS (each participant needs to check with their own university for the recognition process of the credits).

Academic Coordinators

• Academic Coordinator: Prof. Pejman Abdolmohammadi; p.abdolmohammadi [at] unitn.it

Coordinator for NAMEPES Project, is Senior Assistant Professor in Middle Eastern Studies at the School of International Studies at University of Trento. His main research areas are the security and politics of the Middle East, with a particular focus on the geopolitics of the Persian Gulf and the Iranian domestic affairs and foreign policy. Currently he is Coordinator of the European Project on ‘North Africa and Middle East Politics and EU Security’ (NAMEPES) within the ‘Jean Monnet’ scheme. He has also been teaching and researching on topics concerning Islam and Politics. He has extensive publications on these topics, contributing to the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Eurasian Studies and the British Journal of Persian Studies. Pejman spent three years as a Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) - Middle East Centre. Pejman comments regularly the politics and international relations of Middle East on ‘The Economist’.
His most recent book ‘Contemporary Iranian Domestic and Foreign Policies’ will be published by Palgrave/ Mcmillan in July 2020.

• Senior Assistant Project Coordinator: Giulia Daga, PhD Candidate; giulia.daga [at] unitn.it

Senior Project Coordinator NAMEPES, PhD student at the School of International Studies (University of Trento) and Junior Researcher in the MENA Programme at IAI (Istituto Affari Internazionali). She has an MA with honours in International and Diplomatic Sciences (University of Trieste) and a Diploma in Strategic Studies and International Security (University Ca’Foscari – Institute of Maritime Military Studies). She is specialising in Persian Gulf studies, with a focus on Oman. She has worked as a trainee in the Operational Response Division at Frontex (Warsaw), as a teaching assistant of Operational Planning Process at the Institute of Maritime Military Studies (Venice), and as a junior project coordinator at the Eastwest European Institute (Rome).

• Assistant Project Coordinator: Lorenzo Macellari, Student; lorenzo.macellari [at] studenti.unitn.it

Master's Degree student in European and International Studies at the University of Trento. He graduated in Comparative, European and International Legal Studies (University of Trento) with a thesis on Failed States in Africa. He worked as an intern at the Italian Embassy in Baghdad. He is currently writing his thesis on the Iranian Hybrid Regime.

Teaching Committee

•    Pejman Abdolmohammadi is Senior Assistant Professor in Middle Eastern Studies at the School of International Studies at University of Trento (Italy). He is also the Academic Coordinator of NAMEPES Project. His main research areas are the security and politics of the Middle East, with a particular focus on the geopolitics of the Persian Gulf and the Iranian domestic affairs and foreign policy.
•    Ali M. Ansari is Professor of Modern History at the University of St. Andrews (UK) and founding director of the Institute of Iranian Studies. His research focuses on Iranian nation-building, social and intellectual history, ideology and myth, and Iran’s relations with the West.
•    Irene Costantini is a Research Fellow in International Relations at the University of Naples “l’Orientale” (Italy). Her research focuses on the politics of international interventions, and processes of state transformation in the MENA region, with a focus on Iraq and Libya.
•    Giulia Daga is a PhD student at the School of International Studies (University of Trento) and Junior Researcher in the MENA Programme at IAI (Istituto Affari Internazionali). She has an MA with honours in International and Diplomatic Sciences (University of Trieste) and a Diploma in Strategic Studies and International Security (University Ca’Foscari – Institute of Maritime Military Studies). She is specialising in Persian Gulf studies, with a focus on Oman.
•    Fawaz A. Gerges is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and holder of the Emirates Professorship in Contemporary Middle East Studies. He was also the inaugural Director of the LSE Middle East Centre (UK).
•    Joel Gordon, editor of the International Journal of Middle East Studies since 2019, is a political and cultural historian of modern Egypt and the Middle East at the University of Arkansas (US). His research focuses on political change, popular culture, historical memory and mass media, with particular attention to Egypt and the cultural aspects of Nasserism.
•    Nicolas Pelham is The Economist’s Middle East correspondent. He is the author of A New Muslim Order (2008), A History of the Middle East with Peter Mansfield (2012) and Holy Lands (2016) which explores the region’s pluralist past. Taking occasional breaks from journalism, he has worked as a Middle East analyst for the International Crisis Group, the United Nations and the Royal Institute of International Affairs. In 2017 he won the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Journalism.
•    Marco Pertile is Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law and the School of International Studies at the University of Trento (Italy). His research interests include self-determination, recognition, international humanitarian law and the use of force. 

Contacts

• NAMEPES Team: namepes [at] unitn.it (namepes@unitn.)
• School of International Studies - Program Office: sis [at] unitn.it

in cooperation with: