Francesca Frassineti is Associate Research Fellow at ISPI Asia Centre.

She earned a PhD in Global and International Studies at the University of Bologna with a thesis on the international and domestic constraints on South Korea’s foreign policy amid the country’s rising middle power activism. During her doctoral studies, she was a Visiting Researcher at National Taiwan University and at Korea University. Before joining ISPI, Francesca worked as a Research Analyst at the European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) in Brussels.

Francesca received her BA and MA Degrees in International Relations and Diplomatic Affairs. In her Master’s dissertation, she focused on the role of constructive engagement in the Sino-Taiwanese and inter-Korean détente processes examining the pacifying effects of economic interdependence on conflicting dyads.

Her research interests include geopolitics and security issues in Northeast Asia, with a focus on the Korean Peninsula. Francesca is a member of the Association for Asian Studies and of the Association for Korean Studies in Europe.