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Giovanni M. Carbone (5 May 1972, Milan) is full professor of Political Science at the University of Milan and Head of the Africa Program of the Institute for International Political Studies (Ispi, Milan).

He holds a PhD in Political Science/Development Studies from the London School of Economics (LSE), at whose Crisis States Research Center he was later Research Fellow and then Senior Visiting Fellow for ten years.

He conducts research mainly on the politics and economics of sub-Saharan African countries (he has carried out field research in Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa), particularly on issues related to democratization and economic growth.

Giovanni was the Principal Investigator of the project “The economic, social and political consequences of democratic reforms. A quantitative and qualitative comparative analysis” (COD), funded by the European Research Council.

He directed and coordinated the following ISPI Reports: La politica dell’Italia in Africa. Contesto, interessi e scenari della presenza politica e economica italiana nell’Africa subsahariana (2014, commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Africa: still rising? (2015), South Africa: the need for change (2016), Out of Africa. Why people migrate (2017), A vision of Africa’s future. Mapping change, transformations and trajectories towards 2030 (2018, commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Leaders for a new Africa. Democrats, autocrats and development (2019), Africa’s thorny Horn. Searching for a new balance in the age of pandemic (2020), Europe and Africa. The long search for common ground (2021), Sahel: 10 years of instability. Local, regional and international dynamics (2022, with Camillo Casola).

He is the author of the books Political leadership in Africa. Leaders and development south of the Sahara (Cambridge University Press, 2020 – with Alessandro Pellegata), L’Africa. Gli stati, la politica, i conflitti (Il Mulino, 2021, IV edition), Leoni d’Africa. Come l’Italia può intercettare la crescita subsahariana (with M.Montanini, Università Bocconi Editore, 2015) and No-party democracy? Ugandan politics in comparative perspective (Lynne Rienner, 2008), as well as of academic articles published in the following journals: Governance, Government & Opposition, Journal of Democracy, Democratization, Party Politics, Political Studies Review, European Political Science, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Modern African Studies, Africa Spectrum, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Politique Africaine, World Political Science Review, Italian Political Science Review, Afriche e Orienti, Africa, Politica Internazionale, Il Politico.