Virginia Comolli

Virginia Comolli runs the IISS Security and Development Programme which studies how armed violence affects less-developed countries and limits their ability to meet development goals. Through a multi-disciplinary approach, the programme provides policy recommendations to mitigate the impact of insecurity, build resilience and reduce vulnerability to future challenges facing developing countries. Virginia first joined the Institute's Defence Analysis Department in 2006 conducting research on Sub-Saharan Africa. A member of the Transnational Threats and Political Risk team between 2007 and 2014, she worked on international terrorism, radicalisation, organised crime and conflict with a special focus on West Africa, the Sahel and Latin America. In this capacity she was seconded to the UK Ministry of Justice. Prior experience includes working for the intelligence unit of a private security company where she concentrated on the Persian Gulf region, the Maghreb and Afghanistan. She also had a previous brief experience with a strategic intelligence company. Virginia is a member of the European Expert Network on Terrorism Issues (EENeT) and of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime. She seats on the international advisory board of the African Centre for Peace Building (AFCOPB), Ghana, and acts as a Project Associate for the International Drug Policy Project at the London School of Economics (LSE) and as a Technical Advisor at the Global Drug Policy Observatory at Swansea University, UK. She is the author of “Boko Haram: Nigeria’s Islamist Insurgency” (Hurst, 2015), co-author with Nigel Inkster of “Drugs, Insecurity and Failed States: the Problems of Prohibition” (Routledge, 2012), and editor of a forthcoming volume on the strategic implications of transnational organised crime. Virginia holds a First Class Honours degree in War Studies and American Studies from the University of Wolverhampton and a Master's degree in Intelligence and Strategic Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.