This session hosts the researcher Ruth Hanau Santini, from the University of Naples L'Orientale, for an analysis of the international politics behind the latest war in the Middle East. Her extensive research on international relations theories and Middle East studies will serve as the background for wider considerations over the nature and consequences of the weaponisation of everything by multiple actors, from alliances to geography. The commentary to the session is ensured by Licínia Simão, researcher at CES and Professor in International Relations at the University of Coimbra. 


Bio notes

Ruth Hanau Santini | Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at University of Naples L'Orientale. Her research focuses on Middle East and North African politics, citizenship, statehood and geopolitics of the region, as well as Italian and European foreign policy.  She has published on Third World Quarterly, European Security, Mediterranean Politics, The International Spectator. She has also served as advisor to the deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Italy in 2012-2013 and as conflict advisor at the World Food Programme between 2020-2023.

Licínia Simão | PhD in International Relations (specialization in European Studies) by the University of Coimbra, is Associate professor with Habilitation at the School of Economics, University of Coimbra, teaching in International Relations, and researcher at the Centre for Social Studies. Since 2024 is vice-dean at FEUC and co-coordinator of CES research Line 1. Between December, 2018, and January 2023 she was on official duty as a staff member in the office of the Portuguese Minister of Defence, where she was the Coordinator of the Atlantic Centre initiative from August 2021 to January 2023. She was Coordinator of the IR Section at the Portuguese Political Science Association, between 2018 and 2021, and is member of the Advisory Board at the Georgian Institute of Politics, in Tbilisi. She was previously a visiting researcher at the Center for European Policy Studies, in Brussels and at the Centre for European Studies, at Carleton University, in Ottawa. Her research interests include foreign policy analysis and security studies, with a focus on European foreign policy and security and defence policies, the former-Soviet space, and maritime security in the Atlantic.