Olivier Roy is professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy where he is Head of the Mediterranean Programme at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. He was previously a research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a lecturer for both the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) and the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (IEP). From 1984 to 2008, he acted as a consultant to the French Foreign Ministry.