PECOB welcomes its new energy policy analysts

We are pleased to announce that a group of young researchers and analysts has just started to collaborate with our portal. Led by Paolo Sorbello, the group will develop the Energy Policy Studies branch of PECOB, making available studies on energy issues, as well as analyses of the political and economic impact of policies and infrastructures in the area.

We welcome them all and wish them great success!

Paolo Sorbello coordinates the Energy Policy Studies branch and contributes to the publication of research material while supervising the activities of the group. His interests include the energy and foreign policies of the former Soviet republics, especially in the Central Asian region. He has worked at several think-tanks and online publications based in Europe and the United States. He has published a book entitled The Role of Energy in Russian Foreign Policy towards Kazakhstan (Lambert Academic Publishing, Saarbruecken, June 2011).

Elvira Oliva obtained her Master's degree in political science at University of Bologna, with a thesis on the effects of EU energy market integration on the security of supplies. She did part of her research while on a student exchange program at the International Relations Department of the State University of Petrozavodsk (Russia).

After an internship at the Energy Office of the Italian Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels, she is now an energy analyst at the Italian think-tank Nomisma Energia and she contributes to the activities of the University of Bologna's Portal on Eastern and Central Europe and the Balkans (PECOB), through contributions to the new Energy Policy Studies branch.

Her research interests include energy politics, and legal and economic regulation of energy sources, with a geographical focus on the EU's eastern countries and the EU-Russia energy dialogue.

Eleonora Fuser acts as Researcher and Social Media Officer for the Energy Policy Studies branch at PECOB, the Portal on Eastern and Central Europe and the Balkans, where she produces and coordinates web content for PECOB on several social networks. She is also associate researcher for the Energy Policy group, focusing on the policies of NATO and the European Union toward Central Asia and Russia in the field of security and energy. She graduated with a Master's thesis on the NATO-Russia Council at the "R. Ruffilli" Faculty of Political Science of the University of Bologna and is now International Analyst for Russia and the Caucasus for Geopolitica, an Italian Journal of Geopolitics. Her interests also encompass military and energy competition in central, south and east Asia. She has worked as Public Affairs Officer in Asia and Italy in both the not-for-profit and private sector.

Ludovico Grandi has a background in international relations, cultivated through his Bachelor degree in Bologna and mobility programs at the ULB (Brussels) and Corvinus (Budapest) Universities. His Master's program focuses on Russia and its energy role, especially in relation to Central Asian countries. He is an active researcher and contributor to PECOB's Energy Policy Studies Branch.

Giovanni Cadioli completed his BA in Sociology at the University of Trento in 2010, with a final thesis on Russia's foreign policy from 2000 to 2010; he is in the process of completing his MA studies at MIREES, University of Bologna, and spent his MIREES mobility period at the Faculty of Economics of Budapest Corvinus University.

He is mainly interested in Soviet and post-Soviet foreign policy, Russian politics as well as contemporary energy issues.