Modernization and backwardness in Eastern Europe

Nationalism and State Partitions in Europe

Migrations in the Adriatic-Ionian Macroregion and Territorial Cohesion

Yugoslav history

Politics and Political Culture in the Balkans;

Ethnic and Minority problems in SEE;

Soviet/Russian external projection;

Post-communist transition in the Balkans;

EU enlargement eastwards;

Since 2015 he is Rector’s delegate for the relations with East European Countries and the Director of the Unit of the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the Forlì Campus of the University of Bologna. He is also Visiting Professor of the St. Petersburg State University and holds a H.D. in Humanities of the Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas.

Between 2004 and 2015 he was the coordinator of the international two-years Master in Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on Eastern Studies (MIREES), awarding a joint diploma of  the Universities of  Bologna, Vytautas Magnus (Kaunas), St. Petersburg State U., and Corvinus of Budapest.

In addition, from 2001 to 2018 he was also co-director of the European Regional Master in Democracy and Human Rights in SEE (awarding a double diploma of the Universities of Sarajevo and Bologna). He lectured in a number of Universities in Warsaw, Budapest, Kazan, Paris VIII, Drexel, Harvard, Yale, Buenos Aires, Baku State U., Kavkaz, Pantheion (Athens), Belgrade, Sehir, Kaunas, Sofija, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim), John Jay College of Criminal Justice (New York), CUNY, Montréal and others.

He is currently leading a three years research project of his Department on “Russia and China in the Global World. State and Societies between Domestic Dynamics and International Projections” and a one year targeted analysis for ESPON (European Commission) on Migration flows and territorial cohesion in the Adriatic-Ionian and Danubian basins.

As an expert of Balkan issues, particularly on Yugoslavia and its successor states in politics, contemporary history and international relations, he published several books and articles in Italian, French, English and other languages.He was an advisor of the ICTY, in the Hague. Editor in Chief of the English Series on the Balkan and East-Central Europe (Longo Publ., Ravenna), he is the Executive Editor of «Southeastern Europe», Brill, Leiden, a blind peer review international journal indexed by Scopus and Web of Science ESCI, among others.

He has directed and coordinated a wide number of international and national research projects and activities (see the CV)