Giuseppe Acconcia is an award-winning journalist and researcher focusing on the Middle East; researcher at the University of Padova, visiting scholar at the University of California (UCLA), teaching assistant at Bocconi, and a lecturer at the Cattolica University in Milan (Aseri). His research interests focus on youth and social movements, Iranian domestic politics, and the state and transformation in the Middle East. He is the author of The Great Iran (Exorma, 2016), Egypt. Military Democracy (Exorma, 2014) and The Egyptian Spring (Infinito, 2012). He publishes in Il Mulino, The International Spectator, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Sada) and Palgrave.