Federico Santopinto is Senior Research Fellow at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS) in Paris, responsible for the Europe, EU, NATO Programme on EU/NATO issues.
He specialises in European integration in the areas of defence and foreign policy, as well as transatlantic relations and NATO. Federico Santopinto has also worked on military and security cooperation between the European Union (EU) and Africa.
Graduated in Political Science at the University of Florence (international option), Federico Santopinto obtained a master’s degree in International Politics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). He then worked for more than ten years as a long-term electoral observer for the EU, mainly in post-conflict countries in Africa. At the same time, he joined GRIP (Groupe de recherche et d’information sur la paix et la sécurité), a research institute specialized on arms control, where he worked on both EU policies and UN peacekeeping. In this context, he has been project manager of the Boutros-Ghali Peacekeeping Observatory (OBG). Federico Santopinto also occasionally works for ULB as an associate expert.
Associated programmes, observatories and/or projects
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Notes / ARES Group - The Armament Industry European Research Group
13 October 2026
The EU and the Internal Defence Market: What Are the National Perspectives?
Senior Fellow, Elcano Royal Institute
Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Strategic Research (IRSEM)
Head of the Programme for European and Global Politics, Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI), and Researcher, Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI)
Research Fellow & Coordinator, Defence Hub, Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
Head of «Defence Security and Space» Program, Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI)
Senior Fellow, Security and Defence Department, Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW)
Chief analyst, Think Tank Europa
Head of Division Foreign and Security Policy, Hanns Seidel Foundation
Director of the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University
Senior Research Fellow, Clingendael
Notes / Europe, European Union, NATO
15 September 2026
EU and NATO Defence Industrial and Procurement Policies: Complementarity or Competition?
Senior Research Fellow at IRIS, Head of the Europe, EU, NATO Programme on EU/NATO issues
Notes / Europe, European Union, NATO
2 September 2026
Towards the reform of Directive 2009/81/EC on defence procurement: challenges and prospects
Senior Research Fellow at IRIS, Head of the Europe, EU, NATO Programme on EU/NATO issues
Analyses / Europe, European Union, NATO
14 April 2026
What the Hungarian Elections Tell Us About the EU
Directeur de recherche à l’IRIS, responsable du Programme Europe, UE, OTAN sur les questions UE/OTAN
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