Blog Posts

"A reality check for students? How participating to the Model United Nations influences skills, IR perceptions, and perspectives on future career"

5/24/2019

My latest publication on teaching, active learning, and simulations is online: "A reality check for students? “How participating to the Model United Nations influences skills, IR perceptions, and perspectives on future career”, with E.Calossi and L.Cicchi, Politics (forthcoming).
Here the paper (gated)
Here below the abstract:
Despite a growing number of studies on simulations and International Relations (IR), few analyses investigate how participating in a simulation affects students’ perceptions of relevant IR issues. In addition, almost none of the current analyses on role playing and IR investigate how the involvement in a simulation affects students’ views on university enrolment or future career. This article seeks to fill these gaps, addressing how students’ interpretations and expectations change after participating in the Model United Nations (MUN). This article studies how the MUN is perceived as an experience that helps improve personal skills such as language ability, negotiation skills, and knowledge related to IR issues. This article also analyses how perceptions about selected IR issues and views on future university enrolment or future career vary before and after the MUN. The article is based on an original data set from a survey submitted to high school and university students participating to two MUNs held in Spring 2018. This article also employs ordinary least squares (OLS) multivariate regression analysis to test alternative hypotheses.

The Parliamentary Deployment Votes Database

5/10/2019

I'm glad to be part of the The Parliamentary Deployment Votes Database (PDVD). The PDVD collects and shares data on parliamentary votes on the deployment of armed forces.
Since the end of the Cold War, democracies have been participating in military missions of various kinds, ranging from peacekeeping to war. These deployments have raised questions about their democratic legitimacy and parliamentary control in particular. In many democracies, deployments decisions are the exclusive competence of the government, and parliament is only informed. In a growing number of cases, however, such decisions have been put to a vote in parliament. PDVD documents and analyzes these votes.
PDVD serves a dual purpose: As scholars of political science, we are interested in an analysis of deployment votes. By sharing the data we collected, we hope to stimulate further analyses. As citizens of countries that have participated in military missions, we consider the publication of deployment votes to be a contribution to the democratic control of security and defense policy.
At the moment, in version 2 of the dataset, PDVP documents 514 votes in plenaries for the period between August 1990 and December 2017 in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. You can check out our data here.

My latest book: "Italian Foreign Policy during Matteo Renzi's Government. A Domestically Focused Outsider and the World" (with J.W. Davidson, Lexington, 2019)

3/15/2019

I am delighted to announce the publication of my latest book: "Italian Foreign Policy during Matteo Renzi's Government. A Domestically Focused Outsider and the World", with J.W. Davidson (Lexington, 2019). Here you'll find the info on the book and the first reviews.
Here below a short abstract:
This book sets out to explain the foreign policy of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi (February 2014 to December 2016). It offers a unique analytical framework to make sense of Renzi’s foreign policy: the domestically-focused outsider. It argues that to untangle Renzi’s foreign policy one must first understand that his clear priority was enacting domestic economic and political reforms. Domestic focus means that Renzi made foreign policy decisions with a sensitivity to public opinion and party unity. The book also argues that Renzi’s status as an outsider in Italian politics—having previously served only as the mayor of Florence—provides critical insight into his foreign policy. Renzi was prone to skepticism of the establishment and dramatic, symbolic gestures rather than patient coalition building. The book applies this framework to the five most important foreign policy issues Renzi’s government faced: migration, finance and the EU, Russia, ISIL, and Libya. The book’s analysis of the cases benefits from over twenty elite interviews, including those with senior members of Renzi’s government

Political parties matter: a research agenda on interactions among elites in post-conflict democracies

12/1/2018

I'm really pleased that my paper (with G.Cama) on political parties and post conflict societies has been just published (here, in early view, gated) in Contemporary Politics.
Here below the abstract:
The literature has devoted considerable attention to the understanding of state institutions and rule of law in the processes of democratization. However, despite the crucial relevance of dynamic and repeated interactions between actors and institutions in non-homogenous post-conflict societies, most research lacks systematic analyses on the role of parliaments, parties and party systems after civil wars. While several studies have examined the effects of electoral systems or veto rights after power-sharing agreements, as well as the transformation of rebel groups into political parties in post-conflict societies, the development of parties within parliaments has been largely ignored. Therefore, by combining conflict studies, institutional design perspectives and peacebuilding approaches, this paper presents a research agenda on the overlooked role played by parliament as a crucial arena for a better analysis, in the long term, of power-sharing mechanisms and state-building, post-war political framing and narratives, ethnic outbidding and party modernization strategies.

Italian Political Parties and Military Operations: An Empirical Analysis on Voting Patterns

11/6/2018

My latest paper on Italian defense, political parties and military operations is finally out. The paper (written with Valerio Vignoli) presents the first detailed dataset on the votes expressed by Italian parties on military operations abroad in the post-Cold War era. The paper ("Italian Political Parties and Military Operations: An Empirical Analysis on Voting Patterns") has been just published (early view, gated) by Government and Opposition.
Here the link.

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"A reality check for students? How participating to the Model United Nations influences skills, IR perceptions, and perspectives on future career"

The Parliamentary Deployment Votes Database

My latest book: "Italian Foreign Policy during Matteo Renzi's Government. A Domestically Focused Outsider and the World" (with J.W. Davidson, Lexington, 2019)

Political parties matter: a research agenda on interactions among elites in post-conflict democracies

Italian Political Parties and Military Operations: An Empirical Analysis on Voting Patterns

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