I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. My dissertation project (Wars Within Wars: Understanding Inter-rebel Violence) explains why and under what circumstances rebel groups pitted against a common enemy (the government) sometimes fight each other. My research interests cover a broad range of topics at the intersection between International Relations, Security Studies and Comparative Politics: civil war dynamics (in particular civil war alliances), counterinsurgency, civilian victimization and terrorism, coercion theory, non-violent resistance, natural resources and conflict, and great powers’ military intervention. My academic and policy pieces have been published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Middle East Policy, Parameters, The National Interest, The African Security Review and The International Spectator. I previously worked as research analyst at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and at the World Bank’s Development Economics Research Group in Washington, DC. I hold an MA in Strategic Studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). I was born and raised in Italy, where I lived until I graduated from college.