Benedetta Berti is a Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and a Kreitman Post-Doctoral Fellow at Ben Gurion University. Her research focuses on post-conflict stabilization, democratization, political participation of armed groups, with a special emphasis on the Middle East Kristina Mikulová is a research fellow at Comenius University in Bratislava and the Head of Development Cooperation Unit at the Finance Ministry of the Slovak Republic. She has also worked as a freelance consultant for The World Bank, UNDP and Oxford Analytica. Kristina holds a doctorate (D.Phil. in Politics and International Relations from Nuffield College, Oxford University, and a master's (M.Phil. degree in Russian and East European Studies from St. Antony's College, Oxford University. Kristina previously worked as a reporter at various media outlets, including The Economist, the Financial Times' editorial office in Prague, and The Moscow Times in Moscow. Nicu Popescu is Senior Analyst at the EU Institute for Security Studies in Paris. He previously worked as advisor on foreign policy and EU affairs for the prime minister of Moldova (2010, 2012-2013), head of programme and senior research fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London (2007-2009, 2011-2012), and as a research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels (2005-2007). He holds a PhD in International Relations from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.