Antonella Caruso is the Executive Director of Vittorio Dan Segre Foundation. She is the former Director of the Middle East and West Asia division in the Department of Political Affairs of the United Nations in NY (2012-2017). Before joining the UN, she developed and organized a Track II Dialogue on national reconciliation in Iraq, that led to the first caucus on the issue in the Iraqi Parliament (2008-12). She has worked in the private and public sectors in Europe. In France, she collaborated with the Institute Montaigne, a leading independent think tank, and authored the Institute publication “Au nom de l’Islam”, the result of a two year-research project on the institutionalization of Islam in Europe (2005-07). In Switzerland, she was Senior Fellow at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies in Lugano, where she founded and directed the “Incontri del Gottardo” program, a series of high-level meetings on MENA countries. In Italy, she was Senior Middle East adviser to the CEO of ENI (1992-2000) and to the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs (1988-1992). She has collaborated with the Italian media group L’Espresso and has authored scientific publications on medieval and contemporary Islam.