Benedetta BERTI

Prof. Benedetta Berti is the Head of Policy Planning in the Office of the Secretary General at NATO. An Eisenhower Global Fellow and a TED Senior Fellow, Benedetta is also Associate Researcher at the Institute for European Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussels and a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. In the past, she has held teaching and research positions at West Point, the Institute for National Security Studies and Tel Aviv University, among others. 

Her research focuses on armed groups, internal wars, and protection of civilians. Prof. Berti is the author of four books, including "Armed Political Organizations. From Conflict to Integration" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013) and her work and research have appeared, among others, in Al-Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, the National Interest, the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times; as well as in academic journals including Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Parameters, the Middle East Journal, ORBIS, Democratization, Civil Wars, Government & Opposition and Mediterranean Politics.

Her work and research have been awarded numerous awards, grants and fellowships, including the World Politics and Statecraft Fellowship, the Horowitz Foundation Grant, the Lady Davis Fellowship, the Bradley Foundation Fellowship, the Morris Abrams Award in International Relations, the Rosenthal Fellowship and the International Center for Non-Violent Conflict Curriculum Fellowship. In 2015, the Italian government awarded her the Order of the Star of Italy (order of Knighthood).

Benedetta holds a BA in Oriental Studies from the University of Bologna, an MA and PhD in International Relations from The Fletcher School (Tufts University), and two post-doctorates in International Relations and Political Science, from Hebrew University and Ben Gurion University.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Books

  • Berti, Benedetta. The End of Terrorism: Beyond ISIS and the State of Emergency. Milan: Mondadori, 2017[in Italian]
  • Berti, Benedetta, Kristina Mikulova and Nicu Popescu. Democratization of EU Foreign Policy? The Role of New Member States. London: Routledge, 2015.
  • Berti, Benedetta. Armed-Political Organizations: from Conflict to Integration. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.

Book Chapters

  • Berti, Benedetta. "Religion and Politics in Palestine: the case of Hamas". In The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Political Parties, edited by Jeffrey Haynes, Routledge, 2019.
  • Berti, Benedetta, Lionel Beehner and Mike Jackson. "Siege Warfare in the Seven kingdoms”. In Winning Westeros How Game of Thrones Explains Modern Military Conflict, edited by Max Brooks, John Amble, ML Cavanaugh, and Jaym Gates. Potomac Books, 2019.
  • Berti, Benedetta. "Violent and Criminal Non-State Actors". In The Oxford Handbook of Governance and Limited Statehood, edited by Thomas Risse, Tanja A. Börzel and Anke Draude. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
  • Berti, Benedetta. "The Syrian Refugee Crisis: Regional Challenges". In The Middle East and North Africa 2017. 63rd edition, Routledge, 2017.

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

  • Berti, Benedetta. “From Cooperation to Competition: Localization, Militarization and Rebel Co-Governance Arrangements in Syria”. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2020.
  • Berti, Benedetta. ”Rebel Groups between Adaptation and Ideological Continuity: The Impact of Sustained Political Participation". Government and Opposition, Cambridge University Press, November 2018.
  • Berti, Benedetta. "Stability in Syria: What Would it Take to make it Happen?". ORBIS, Spring 2018.
  • Beehner, Lionel M., Benedetta Berti and Michael T. Jackson. “The Strategic Logic of Sieges in Counterinsurgencies”. Parameters 47, no. 2 (2017): 77-86.
  • Berti, Benedetta. ”What’s in a name? Re-conceptualizing non-state armed groups in the Middle East". Palgrave Communications 2, 2016.
  • Berti, Benedetta.Rebel Politics and the State: Between Conflict and Post-Conflict, Resistance and Co-Existence”. Civil Wars 18, no. 2 (2016): 118-136.
  • Berti, Benedetta and Beatriz Gutierrez Lopez. “Rebel-to-Political and Back? Hamas as a Security Provider in Gaza between Rebellion, Politics and Governance”. Democratization 23, no. 6 (2016): 1059-1076.

 Other Publications

  • Berti, Benedetta. "Is Reconstruction Syria’s Next Battleground?". Sada, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 5 September 2017.
  • Berti, Benedetta. "Gaza on the Brink". Foreign Affairs, 27 June 2017.
  • Adebahr, Cornelius, Benedetta Berti, Mohamed Eljarh and Kristina Kausch. "Power beyond the State. Non-State Actors in the Broader Southern Mediterranean”. Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung, December 2016.
  • Beehner, Lionel M., Michael T. Jackson and Benedetta Berti. "Modern Siege Warfare. How It Is Changing Counterinsurgency". Foreign Affairs, 7 December 2016.

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