Chiara Cervasio is a Doctoral Researcher at the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security (ICCS), the University of Birmingham and a Nuclear Policy Analyst at the British American Security Information Council (BASIC).
Chiara has a background in Political Science, International Relations, and International Security. Before completing her BSc in 2014 at the University of Pisa, she has worked as an intern at the European University Institute, Fiesole (FI). She then obtained her MSc in 2017 from the University of Bologna, specialising in Politics of Contemporary Asia.
Her PhD project, funded by the School of Government and Society, examines the role of empathy and trust in the de-escalation of international diplomatic crisis between adversaries driven by security or status dilemmas. In particular, the project examines the resolution of two bilateral crisis in Sino-Indian relations between the late 1980s and the late 1990s.
At BASIC, she mainly collaborates to the development of the Programme on Nuclear Responsibilities. The Programme aims to create a meaningful dialogue between both nuclear possessor and non-possessor states which can be framed around shared notion of responsibilities and empathic cooperation, rather than around rights, blame and suspicion.
Chiara’s broad research interests are International Relations Theory, International Diplomacy, Political Psychology, Nuclear Policy and the Asia-Pacific region.