Andrea Dessì is junior researcher within the Mediterranean and Middle East programme at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in Rome, Italy and PhD candidate in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His research interests include the history and politics of the wider Middle Eastern region with a particular focus on US foreign policy towards the Arab world and the diplomatic and military history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. His PhD thesis examines the institutionalization of the US-Israel ‘special relationship’ during the 1980s.