Head of the Center

Professor Luigi Martino is the current Head, Coordinator, and Founder of the Center for Cyber Security and International Relations Studies.

He is a faculty member at the University of Bologna, where he teaches the courses “Cyber Security and International Relations” and “Cyber Security and Business”, and at the University of Florence, where he lectures on “Intelligence and National Security”, having previously held the chair in “ICT Policies and Cybersecurity”. He has also delivered courses and seminars on cyber diplomacy, cyber warfare, and international security at various Italian and international universities, including the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

He currently serves as Principal Research Scientist at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, where he also holds the position of Director of the Cyber Security Academy. He is Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center in Tel Aviv, Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP), and Associate Research Fellow at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI).

His research interests focus on the impact of emerging technologies on the dynamics of power in the international system, with particular emphasis on cyberspace, quantum technologies, and artificial intelligence. He has led and coordinated numerous national and international research projects, including:

• The project “The Intersection Between Technology and Policy in Cyberspace: Empirical Analysis of Risks, Threats and Opportunities Stemming from the Use of ICTs”, focused on the legal and ethical implications of autonomous vehicles, military drones, emerging technology policies, and national cybersecurity frameworks;
• The OSCE-funded research project on the implementation of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) in cyberspace (OSCE 2018), where he served as Project Manager;
• The SPARTA EU Cyber Competence Center (Horizon 2020), where he acted as Research Coordinator for cyber policy-related activities.

He is also a member of the Board of the Italian National Cybersecurity Laboratory and Principal Investigator for the Microcyber project of the National Inter-University Consortium for Informatics (CINI).

In 2024, he was awarded the Young Researcher Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for Cyber Security and Resilience (CSR). In 2019, he was selected by the U.S. Department of State to participate in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on Cyber Security Multi-Regional Cooperation.

He is a member of the Research Advisory Group of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace, as well as an expert for ENISA in the implementation of the European NIS Directive. Since 2022, he has collaborated with the EU DG INTPA on digitalization and cybersecurity projects. Since 2017, he has been a member of the Ise-Shima G7 Cyber Group and the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise, where he represents the Center for Cyber Security and International Relations Studies.

Finally, he is the author of numerous publications in Italian, English, and Spanish on topics related to cybersecurity, cyber warfare, cyber intelligence, and cyber diplomacy. His recent works include the volume Cybersecurity in Italy: Governance, Policies and Ecosystem (Springer, 2024), and, as co-editor with Umberto Gori, Intelligence e Interesse Nazionale (Aracne Editrice, 2015).