Groppi, Michele

Ph.D. Candidate, King's College London, United Kingdom

Michele Groppi obtained his BA from Stanford University in 2009 in International Relations with Honors. After taking numerous classes about terrorism, Islam, and the Middle East, Michele spent almost three months in Israel and the Palestinian Territories interviewing Palestinians and exploring the link between trade and the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

After meeting Dr. Boaz during his sabbatical year at Stanford, in 2010 the latter offered Michele a position as an intern at the International Counter-terrorism Center (ICT), where he published his first report on Islamist radicalization in Italy- the second one was updated in 2015 for CEMISS, a center linked to the Italian Ministry of Defense. In love with IDC, in 2011 Michele started his MA in
Counter-terrorism and Homeland Security, enjoying every research topic and every single class the best teachers in the world taught him.

Michele is now part of King’s College London PhD program in Defense Studies, which he will complete by the end of the year. Michele’s current interests include international security, counter-terrorism, and Islamist radicalization in Europe and Italy. Counting on the largest quantitative empirical analysis on causal models of Islamist radicalization in the field, Michele has presented his research at the Italian Parliament and at a number of diplomatic missions, including the Israeli embassy in Rome.

Finally, Michele wrote articles for journals such as Limes, Perspectives on Terrorism, and CTC Sentinel at West Point, published op-eds on the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz, and was invited on political TV shows in Italy. As a student-athlete, Michele has always combined his academic journey with his passion for volleyball, for he is the only professional volleyball player in Italy enrolled in a PhD program.

Publications by the Author

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Oh my beloved Italy, please wake up!

10/02/2015

Even Italy, a country that has historically been fairly immune to the phenomenon, is now starting to realize the real potential threat stemming from the radicalization of its Muslim community.

First published in the Jerusalem Post

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Islamization Processes in Italy

01/07/2010

This paper aims to analyze the process of radicalization among Muslims in the United States. The purpose of this report is to create an index of radicalization of the Muslim community in Italy. Preceded by concise sections about demographics and organization, the main part of the project focuses on elements that point to the radicalization of the Muslim community. By gathering data from public sources, the report compiles a list of radical organizations and leaders actively or passively engaged in religious extremism and terrorism. Increasing extremist visions of Islam, attacks or attempted attacks, arrests, sentences, expulsions, and religiousdriven aggressions show the real entity of the matter. The main conclusion of this project is that radicalization of Muslim communities represents a serious threat for peace and security in Italy and in the West and must be addressed immediately.

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