Dr. Silvia Colombo

GRM 2021 Workshop: Foreign Aid and the Gulf States

Senior Research Fellow, Mediterranean and Middle East Programme - International Affairs Institute

Dr. Silvia Colombo is Senior Research Fellow in the Mediterranean and Middle East Programme at the International Affairs Institute (IAI) in Rome. She was the coordinator of the European Commission’s project ‘Sharaka – Enhancing Understanding and 5 Cooperation in EU-GCC Relations’ between 2012 and 2014. An expert on Middle Eastern politics, she works on Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, transatlantic relations in the Mediterranean, and domestic and regional politics in the Arab world. Among her research interests are also the relations between the European Union and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and energy dynamics in the Euro-Mediterranean region. Dr. Colombo holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Politics from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (Florence Branch) and a Master’s Degree in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. She speaks Arabic fluently and has travelled extensively to the Middle Eastern region. Her recent publications include “The Gulf and the EU: Partners or Competitors?” in S. Gstöhl and E. Lannon (eds.), The Neighbours of the European Union’s Neighbours: Diplomatic and Geopolitical Dimensions beyond the European Neighbourhood Policy (Farnham and Burlington, Ashgate, 2014).