Oliver Richmond is a leading scholar in the field of IR, Peace and Conflict Studies. He is founder of the MA in Peace and Conflict Studies and contributes to its core modules in the Department of Politics at the University of Manchester. In 2019, he received an Eminent Scholar Award from the International Studies Association. He has worked with international actors, especially the UN, and civil society organisations in several conflict-affected areas around the world. He has contributed to documentaries around the world, numerous policy reports, and recently to UNESCO’s work on culture for peace, as well to the Nobel Centre’s exhibitions on Artpeace. He has also consulted for a range of global organisations.

Alice Pistolesi is a journalist and editor of the Atlante delle Guerre e dei Conflitti del Mondo, where she curates dossiers, reports and insights on contemporary conflicts. She deals with the analysis and narration of crisis contexts, with particular attention to the social consequences of wars, populations claiming autonomy or self-determination and environmental and feminist protest movements. She has made reports and investigations collaborating with Italian and international newspapers, including L’Espresso, BBC Future, El País, The Guardian and Altreconomia. She is also engaged in training and awareness-raising activities on the issues of conflicts, migration and media narratives.

Basil Massey is an international development professional and former Indian Army officer. He currently serves as Director of the Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration (DDR) Programme at UNDP Ethiopia.
With over three decades of experience, Basil served in the Indian Army Special Forces and operated in combat areas. He transitioned to the United Nations in 2003. He worked mainly in fragile and conflict/post-conflict settings, holding senior DDR, SSR, and advisory roles across Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Fiji Islands, Nepal, the Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, and Thailand.

Anna Cervi helps decision‑makers in governments, multilateral institutions, think tanks, and international organisations turn complexity into strategy that works under pressure. She provides independent advisory and training support – including to the United Nations, the European External Action Service (EEAS), and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – on mediation, sanctions, export controls, and AML/CTF frameworks in conflict-affected settings, with particular attention to their implications for financial systems, energy, and the women, peace and security agenda.
She has held executive positions in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Ukraine, and the wider Levant, combining long‑term field exposure with high‑level international policy engagement. She holds an MSc from the University of Oxford and has completed advanced training in mediation, negotiation, and decision-making at the Swiss FDFA, the London School of Economics, and Harvard Business School Online.
She is Co-Founder and Strategy Lead of RIMI (Italian Network for International Mediation), a member of the Mediterranean Women Mediator Network (MWMN), and co-founder of the Italian Initiative for International Mediation (3IM)

Prof. dr Milica Pejanović-Đurišić served as Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Montenegro to UN until July 2021, and previously as Minister of Defence in the Government of Montenegro from March 2012 to November 2016, having one of the leading roles in the process of Montenegro’s accession to NATO. Prof. Pejanović-Đurišić was the first Ambassador of independent Montenegro to France, Monaco and UNESCO in the period 2007-2010. From 2004 to 2006, she was Ambassador of the State Union Serbia&Montenegro to Belgium and Luxembourg. From 1992 to 2002, Prof. Pejanović-Đurišić was a member of the Parliament of Montenegro and in one term Chairman of its Committee for Foreign affairs. She was elected Member of the State Presidency (1990-1992) at the first democratic elections in Montenegro.
With the PhD in Telecommunication Engineering, she has continuously pursued her academic carrier as a full professor in Telecommunications and Wireless Communications at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Montenegro. In addition to numerous research/university related engagements, she is also a member of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network, Nizami Ganjavi International Center, Advisory Board of the Montenegro/UN Acceleration Fund, Advisory Board of Friends of Western Balkans, Network 20/20… Experience in security and defence sectors, gained in a specific environment and time, and combined with her expertise in ICTs, resulted in active engagement of Prof. Pejanović-Đurišić in cybersecurity domain. As an expert advising the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), European Commission and World Bank, she has been involved in high-impact projects and strategic initiatives to strengthen the safety and security of the global ICT ecosystem.

Benjamin Smith currently heads up the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD)’s Organised Crime and Peacemaking programme. He also provides strategic and substantive advice to mediators and conflict parties and is a member of the UNODC High-Level Expert Group on Transnational Organised Crime. Before joining HD, Ben spent 13 years with the United Nations (UN), specializing in mediation, transnational crime, the security sector, and peacekeeping.
He was based with the UN in multiple countries, including Nepal, South Sudan, Thailand, and Timor-Leste. Most recently, he served as the Head of UNODC’s program to combat migration-related crime in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Earlier, Ben was the Africa Team Leader for the UN Mediation Support Unit, where he also led on ceasefires and security arrangements. He has held a number of other field-based roles, including Officer-in-Charge of the UN Security Sector Reform Sections in South Sudan and Nepal.
At the start of his UN-related career, Ben negotiated UN General Assembly resolutions on behalf of the EU and the UK Government

Costanza Spocci is a journalist and radio presenter for Radio3 Mondo, a programme on RAI Radio3 focusing on international politics. She reports on conflicts, migration, and political developments in Europe and the MENA region. Her work has been featured in various international outlets, including the BBC and Al Jazeera. She has produced documentaries for ARTE/ZDF, as well as podcasts and radio documentaries for RAI, NPR, and RSI. Her latest book is Generazione Cairo (Feltrinelli, 2025).

Gabriella Arcadu is an expert in conflicts and post-conflict rehabilitation processes.
She has directed peacebuilding projects and provided consultancy in numerous crisis zones for governments, the United Nations and academia. She has contributed to developing a transformative methodology of training trainers and leadership tested with different audiences in various crisis areas such as the Middle East, Kosovo, Afghanistan, various countries in Africa.
She founded and is co-director of 4change, an Italian association that works internationally on mediation and training programs.

Elisabeth Alber is Senior Researcher and Research Group Leader (Participation and Innovations) at the Eurac Research Institute for Comparative Federalism and lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Innsbruck. She also holds an associate position at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra and the Centre for Multilevel Federalism of the Institute of Social Sciences in New Delhi, and she is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Vienna based KDZ-Centre for public administration research and the Bürgerdialog Ostbelgien.
Elisabeth has taught and published on federalism, institutional innovations and democracy (with focus on deliberative and participatory democracy), multinational federalism and asymmetric regionalism, intergovernmental relations and policymaking in federal and regional States (with focus on education, language, cross-border cooperation and financial relations). Her research interests also comprise decentralization and democratization processes, and civic education.

Karen Banaa joined the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) in 2020, where she focuses on addressing digital threats to conflict and stability. She supports HD teams and mediators globally in understanding and addressing social media harms through dialogue and mediation, engaging with conflict parties, governments, civil society and technology companies. Prior to HD, Karen worked at The International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and managed communications for an NGO in The Hague.

Paola works as Project Manager for the Ethiopia team of the Sub-Saharan Africa Unit. Before joining Berghof she was Project Manager in the Philippine Program of forumZFD, part of the German Civil Peace Service (CPS). In the Philippines she worked on natural resource conflict, working with Indigenous Peoples organisations on their capacity to transform conflicts, as well as organising regional platforms for dialogue in relation to the Peace Process. She has work experience in the field of conflict transformation and development cooperation in Latin America and South East Asia.

Paola holds a LLB and LLM in international law from the University of Pisa, a MA in Community Mediation from the Catholic University of Milan and a Peace Advisor certificate from the Academy for Conflict Transformation of the CPS.

Sergey Radchenko is Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at SAIS Europe, and Director, Bologna Institute for Policy Research. Previously he was Professor of International Relations, Cardiff University. Radchenko has an international reputation for research on the history of the Cold War. He has written on Sino-Soviet relations, on Soviet and Chinese foreign policies, on atomic diplomacy, and on Cold War crises. In addition he has published work on North Korea and Mongolia and continues to have interests in the international politics of East and Central Asia and in contemporary Sino-Russian relations, Russian foreign policy, and Russia-NATO relations. He has served as a Global Fellow and a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre (in Washington D.C.), and as the Zi Jiang Distinguished Professor at East China Normal University (Shanghai). Currently his research interests center around the global history of the Cold War. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, National Interest, The Moscow Times, and other national and international media.

Prof. Belloni teaches International Relations at the University of Bologna. Previously he held teaching and research positions at the University of Denver, Harvard, Queens Belfast and Trento. His research focuses on post-conflict peacebuilding, with particular reference to the Balkans and civil society issues. His recent pubblications include: Critical Theory and Peace Processes: Gramsci, Civil Society and the Struggle for Hegemony (Manchester University Press, 2026, in press); Global Perspectives on Sanctions: Norm Contestation and its Impact on International Politics, co-edited with T. Biersteker and F. Giumelli, Edinburgh University Press, 2026, in press; The Rise and Fall of Peacebuilding in the Balkans. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2020

Guy Banim brings over two decades experience in peace mediation and preventive diplomacy rooted in his early career implementing the peace agreement in Northern Ireland. He later worked for the EU in Nepal, Afghanistan and Ethiopia and as team leader of the EEAS Mediation Support Team in Brussels. Guy has supported local actors in diverse contexts such as Mozambique, Myanmar and Zanzibar for organisations including UNDP, Crisis Management Initiative, European Institute of Peace, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and ACCORD.
Guy is a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe teaching a course on EU and Peace Mediation. He has published on the EU approach to peace process support and was co-author of HD Centre Mediation Practice Series 8 “Peacemaking and new technologies: Dilemmas and options for mediators”

Viacheslav Likhachev is a political scientist and human rights activist. An author of several books and dozens of scholar articles and analytical reports on xenophobia, hate crimes and national minority rights. Since the beginning of the Russian aggression works on documentation of war crimes. An Expert of the Center for Civil Liberties, the Nobel peace prize awarded Ukrainian human rights NGO.

Rashmi Thapa has been working for the European Union since 2018, initially at the European Union Delegation to Kenya as a Regional Crisis Response Planner covering Southern Africa, Sudan and South-Sudan. Currently, she serves as the Rapid Response Manager/Innovation Lead for European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) based the European Union headquarters in Brussels. In her role as Innovation Lead, she contributes to the EU’s policy development and funding strategies related to Peace Tech. Before joining the EU, Rashmi spent over 12 years working in fragile and conflict-affected settings, including Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Syria, and Uganda. There, she led programmes and policies focused on children affected by armed conflict, peacebuilding, conflict prevention, and disarmament with International and National Non-Governmental Organisations, Locally-Led Community based Organisations and the United Nations.

She holds a (research) MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam.

 Luca Fratini is a diplomat from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy. He started his diplomatic career in 1992 and served in many countries in Europe, Africa and the Near East. In the last ten years he has been working in multilateral contexts, namely the UN and the OSCE. Since October 2023, he is the Coordinator for Women Peace and Security, Youth Peace and Security and Mediation Policies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome

Marika Theros, PhD, is a Policy Fellow and Adaptive Strategy and Practice Lead at the Civic Ecosystems & Social Innovation Programme within the Conflict and Civicness Research Group at LSE IDEAS, and Founding Director of the Civic Engagement Project (CEP). Her work spans both research and practice, with a particular focus on process design and peacemaking support. She designs and facilitates high-level dialogues, strategy processes, and cross-actor engagements in complex and conflict-affected settings, working across political, civic, and institutional spheres in places like Afghanistan, Colombia, the Balkans and Middle East. Her approach centres on ecosystem thinking — activating complementary capacities and collective insight to support adaptive responses to conflict, disruption, and repression. Her research at LSE examines political mobilisation, the global–local dynamics of violence and change, negotiations and peacemaking, multi-stakeholder dialogue processes, and the politics of knowledge production

Lara Scarpitta is the OSCE Senior Adviser on Gender Equality and Head of the Gender Unit in the Office of the Secretary General of the OSCE.
She is an expert in diplomacy, mediation, and the Women, Peace and Security agenda, she has been promoting women’s participation in peace processes for over twenty years, both in conflict settings and in post-conflict contexts. Lara worked for more than 15 years as an official of the European Union in the Balkans and the Middle East, covering Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Iraq. In addition to Brussels, she served as a political adviser in Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as at the EU Delegation to the United Nations in Geneva. She is a member of the Advisory Board of WIIS – Women in International Security Italy – and, since 2024, a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Tirana. Originally from Sanremo, she holds a PhD in Russian and East European Studies and a Master’s degree in European Studies from the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom).

Leonardo De Agostini is a Visiting Fellow at the Fondazione CSF, where he works on European Integration, Foreign and Security Policy and Disinformation and contributed to launching ‘NEXUS. Italian Hub on Hybrid Threats’. Previously, he worked at the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), within the Countering Foreign Interference project. His work examined how to strengthen the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) against Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI). He worked at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), the International Crisis Group and the European Foreign Policy Unit at the London School of Economics (LSE), where he obtained his Master’s. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Università Cattolica in Milan, where he also attended the ASERI graduate school. He contributed to the G7 ‘Think7’ Task Force on Global Peace and Security and regularly comments in the media on European security and hybrid threats

Michele Giovanardi is Programme Officer for Digital Peacemaking at CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, where he works on the responsible use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in peacemaking, mediation support, and inclusive dialogue processes. He is also a doctoral candidate at the United Nations University for Peace (Costa Rica), where he conducts research on artificial intelligence and human–machine interaction in peacemaking.
He was previously a researcher at the Global PeaceTech Hub of the Florence School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute (EUI), where he also worked on communication, digital education, and learning technologies.
Michele holds a master’s degree in International Security and Strategic Studies from the University of Bologna. He studied international relations at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and the political psychology of international relations at the University of Birmingham (UK), where he also served as a research fellow at the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security.
As a student, he led several civic and educational initiatives, including serving as a team leader in student movements and co-founding Pensare Politico, a non-profit organisation focused on citizenship education.

Eva Ziedan is a cultural heritage specialist and community development professional with over 13 years of experience in Syria and the Mediterranean, with a focus on community development in conflict zones.
Her expertise focuses on addressing challenges such as rural and urban marginalisation, gender inequalities, environmental degradation and social exclusion. Her approach is based on the elaboration of methodologies involving the mobilization of local resources and a deep understanding of governance policies.
Her research interests extend to the analysis of political dynamics and the interpretations that communities give to heritage and cultural identities

Huma Saeed, PhD, is a Senior Transitional Justice Fellow at the City University of New York and a Senior Advisor at MADRE, a global women’s rights organization. She is also an affiliated senior researcher at KU Leuven and an adjunct lecturer at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies. With over 20 years of experience in human rights, women’s rights, and post-conflict justice, Dr. Saeed has served as an expert for the UN, the EU, and other international organizations. She holds a PhD in criminology from KU Leuven, an MA in human rights from LSE, and a BA in Political Science from UMBC. Her research focuses on transitional justice and economic-state crime. She has published widely in academic journals and books on transitional justice, economic-state crime, gender justice, and victims’ empowerment.

Alessandri is a visiting senior fellow at The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) for the Risk and Strategy program, which produces short- and long-term analyses on geopolitical risks and dynamics concerning Europe, the United States, transatlantic relations and the international order. He is also a senior adviser at the Agency for Peacebuilding, an affiliated researcher at the Austrian Institute of International Affairs and an associate fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
He is an expert in the field of international security and multilateral cooperation, with particular attention to transatlantic relations, European affairs and the Mediterranean area, and North-South relations.
He was a resident senior transatlantic fellow at the GMF between 2010 and 2013, focusing mainly on Mediterranean and Turkish issues. He then served as a senior official with three consecutive Secretaries-General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) between 2013 and 2023. He has also held positions at the International Center for Migration Policy Development, the Brookings Institution and the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome, and has taught at the College of Europe and the Central European University.
He holds a doctorate in international history from the University of Cambridge and a master’s degree in international economics and U.S. foreign policy from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)

Sara is a young professional in the field of peacebuilding with a solid international background and a master’s degree cum laude in International Relations from the University of Bologna, where she also obtained her bachelor’s degree in International and Diplomatic Sciences. Her academic and personal background has been deeply influenced by several study experiences abroad, including the Netherlands, Portugal, South Korea and Spagna. Her professional and academic experience includes a strong commitment to student governance and internationalization processes, holding the roles of Student Representative and Tutor for Internationalization at the University of Bologna. She started her collaboration with AP as a Project Intern, contributing to the EU-funded BRIDGES project. This experience shaped her experimental master’s thesis, which analyses AP’s approach in Somalia in the broader framework of transitional justice and the legacies of Italian colonialism.
Her thematic interests include peacebuilding and conflict transformation; the role and impact of civil society; transitional justice, reparations, and the rule of law; post-colonial legacies—especially those related to Italian colonialism; Italian and European development cooperation; and regional security dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa and the Horn of Africa. Sara now returns to AP as a Young Associate, contributing to youth engagement, intergenerational dialogue, and research in the field of peacebuilding.

Evelyn Pauls is a research associate at the Berghof Foundation, an independent consultant and peacebuilding practitioner with a focus on community-based approaches and participatory methods. She has over 10 years of research experience in peacebuilding and conflict transformation, with field experiences in Aceh, Burundi, Colombia, Mindanao, Myanmar, Nepal, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. She specializes in gender and conflict, participatory and inclusive processes, and creative methods, especially participatory filmmaking. She co-produced two documentaries with women ex-combatants, exploring their realities lived after the war. Her current research investigates the gender-climate-conflict nexus. She also provides policy advice, analysis, training, facilitation, monitoring and evaluation with a focus on impact.
She holds a PhD in International Relations from the LSE, an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford and a BA in Political Science and Public Law from the University of Mannheim. Evelyn was an editor of Millennium: Journal of International Studies, was a co-investigator of the Gender, Justice and Security Hub based at the LSE Centre for WPS and a visiting researcher at the National University of Singapore.

Remon Karam is an activist and popularizer, with a background in Languages and International Relations. Arriving in Italy at the age of 14 after crossing the sea alone, he transformed his personal experience into a civil and cultural commitment. Through his testimony, also told in the book “The sea hides the stars” (Garzanti), he represents an authoritative voice on the theme of migration and inclusion.

He is currently Case Manager for Adecco Inclusion, Student Ombudsman of the Kore University of Enna and vice president of the “Nuova Speranza” association.

Simone Ceresa is an international conflict and criminal mediator with over 13 years of experience in diplomacy, conflict management and restorative justice in some of the most difficult areas of the world between Africa, Central America and the Balkans with the European External Action Service, the United Nations and civil society organizations. Since 2018, he has been directing the programs for Albania and Kosovo for the German organization CSSP – Berlin Center of Integrative Mediation, for which he oversees external relations and the creation of new projects.

He is one of the founders of the Italian Initiative for International Mediation (3IM) and works as a mediator between victims and offenders when he is in Italy. He graduated in Law from the State University of Milan, with a Master’s degree in International and European Union Law and postgraduate studies in mediation and restorative justice (DIKE – Cooperative for Conflict Mediation) and a Diploma in Humanitarian Aid (ISPI).