Dr Ivan Zaccagnini

Dr Ivan Zaccagnini is a Senior Researcher in Technology and Geopolitics at the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich. He is also a non-resident Fellow at the external page Center for International and Strategic Studies (CISS) at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome. 

Ivan's research interests include emerging and disruptive technologies, the future of warfare, and great power competition. His work has been published in prestigious journals including International Security, Security Studies, Contemporary Security Policy, Journal of European Integration and Geopolitics. He has also been contributor
to national and international media outlets including Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), Euronews, The Parliament Magazine, and Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF).

In April 2026 he defended his joint Ph.D. thesis entitled “Europe's Place in US–China Technology Competition. Insights from Wedging, Binding and Dynamic Sequencing” at the Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome (summa cum laude). The thesis was the result of a joint program between the external page LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome and the external page Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) of the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Brussels.

He was Teaching Assistant for International Relations and Political Risk Analysis and Expert of the Subject in Strategic Studies at the Department of Political Science at LUISS University. Since 2020, he worked as Research Assistant at the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CISS), where he is currently affiliated as a non-resident Fellow. In 2022, with the financial support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), he co-authored two studies on military drones and the hider-finder competition in air warfare, published respectively in International Security and Security Studies. 

Further information and publications available via external page Google Scholar and external page ORCID.