Giulia Piccolino

PhD

  • Senior Lecturer in Politics & International Relations
  • Associate research fellow at GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Publications
Giulia Piccolino

Giulia joined Loughborough University in September 2016. Previously, she was a Post-doctoral researcher sponsored by the Alexander Von Humboldt foundation at the GIGA Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg. Giulia remains affiliated at the GIGA as an Associate research fellow. Her main research interests lie in the field of peace and conflict studies and in the politics of developing countries (particularly Africa and Latino America). Giulia was awarded her PhD at the University of Florence in Italy in 2012, with a dissertation where she explored the political use of nationalism during the conflict and peace process in Côte d’Ivoire. After her PhD, Giulia participated in several collaborative research projects, including the EU-funded project ‘The Consequences of Democratization’ and ‘the REGIOCONF project, funded by Compagnia di San Paolo. She has also worked in the field of electoral assistance and observation for the United Nations and the Carter Center, an experience that has greatly strengthened her understanding of international conflict management.

Giulia's main research interests lie in the field of peace and conflict studies: in particular, she is interested in understanding the transition from war to peace and the long-term legacies of violent conflicts. Her recent publications look at the problem of building a legitimate political order and a functioning state after a civil war terminated in the victory of one of the warring parties. Giulia is currently involved in two main research projects. In collaboration with Phil Martin (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Jeremy Speight (University of Alaska at Fairbanks), she is exploring the legacies of rebel governance in Northern of Côte d’Ivoire. Giulia is also co-investigator in the ESRC-Colciencia funded project “Territorial planning for peace and statebuilding in the Alto Cauca region of Colombia” (2018-2020), directed by Katherine Gough (Loughborough University, Geography) and Irene Velez Torres (Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia). She has conducted research or worked in Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. Giulia has applied a wide range of research methods in her research, such as structured and open-ended interviews, focus groups and quantitative surveys.

While working as a post-doctoral research fellow at the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Giulia has also been an adjunct lecturer at the University of Hamburg and at Leuphana University Lüneburg. At Loughborough, she convenes the undergraduate modules Politics of Developing Countries and International Conflict Management. Giulia is a fellow of the High Education Academy since July 2018.

Current postgraduate research students

  • Ibrahim Magara: "International Mediation and the Sting of National Interests: The Place of IGAD’s Frontline Member States in the South Sudan Peace Process"
  • Tomas Halgas: "Early Identification, Termination, Prevention of Intranational Intergroup Conflict in Western Democratic Countries"

Recent postgraduate research students

  • Dorina Baltag (2018) "Practice and performance: EU diplomacy in Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus after the inauguration of the European External Action Service, 2010–2015"
  • Martin, P., G. Piccolino and J. Speight, 2021, ‘Ex-Rebel Authority after Civil War: Theory and Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire’, Journal of Comparative Politics, 53 (2): 209-232, doi.org/10.5129/001041521X15923094954447.
  • Piccolino, G., 2020, 'Looking like a regional organization? The European model of regional integration and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU)', Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 33(2): 179-203, doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2019.1634676. 
  • Piccolino, Giulia, 2019, 'Looking like a regional organization? The European model of regional integration and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU)', Cambridge Review of International Affairs, published online, doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2019.1634676.
  • Piccolino, Giulia 2019, ‘Local Peacebuilding in a Victor’s Peace. Why Local Peace Fails Without National Reconciliation’, International Peacekeeping, 26(3): 354-379.
  • Piccolino G. 2018, ‘Peacebuilding and statebuilding in post-2011 Côte d’Ivoire. A victor’s peace?, African Affairs, vol. 117(468), pp. 485–508.
  • Piccolino G. 2016 ‘Infrastructural state capacity for democratization? Voter registration and identification in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana compared’, Democratization, 23(3): 498-519.
  • Piccolino G. 2015, ‘Winning wars and building (illiberal) peace?’ The rise (and possible fall) of a victor’s peace in Rwanda and Sri Lanka’, review article, Third World Quarterly, vol. 36(7): 1770-1785.
  • Piccolino G. 2015,‘Making democracy legible? The politics of voter registration and the experience of the permanent electronic electoral list (LEPI) in Benin’, Development and Change, 46(2): 269–292.
  • Piccolino G. 2012, ‘David against Goliath in Côte d’Ivoire? Laurent Gbagbo’s war against global governance’, African Affairs, 111 (442): 1-23.