Claudio Bertolotti (PhD) is Head of researchers at the Military Centre for Strategic Studies (Ce.Mi.S.S./IRAD, Italian Ministry of Defense). His academic and professional research focus on terrorism, radicalisation, Intellicence, security in Mediterranean area, conterinsurgency, small wars and asymmetric conflicts in the MENA area (in particular Afghanistan Syria and Libya). Since 2015, he is Senior Researcher at the Centre Euromaghrébin de Recherches et d’Etudes Stratégiques (CEMRES) in Tunis and Italian Representative within the ‘5+5 Defense Initiative’ international research working group. 

Currently, he is Director and Head of Research at Swiss-Italian company START InSight, co-founder and Executive Director of the Observatory on Radicalisation and Counter-Terrorism (ReaCT), Subject Matter Expert at NATO, researcher and lecturer at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) and the Italian Society for International Organisation (SIOI). With more than 20 years of global experience in the Defense sector, he served in Former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Kosovo) and Afghanistan as NATO Counter-intelligence Section Chief.