Biography
Francesca Ghiretti received her PhD from War Studies, King’s College London where she was awarded the Leverhulme Scholarship as part of the project ‘Interrogating Visions of a Post-Western World: Interdisciplinary and Interregional Perspectives on the Future in a Changing International Order’. At KCL, she is also a fellow at the Centre for Grand Strategy.
Currently, Francesca is an analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) where she covers EU-China relations, economic security, China's engagement in the Global South, China's footprint in Southern Europe and UK-China relations. Francesca is also a Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Affairs (ECFR). Before joining MERICS, she worked as a Research Fellow Asia at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in Rome leading a project on the Belt and Road Initiative in Italy. Previously, she also worked as a geopolitical analyst for CQS, a London-based hedge fund and as assistant to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, former Secretary General of NATO.
Research Interests
- EU- China
- Foreign direct investments
- Securitization
- UK-China
- Italy-China
- Economic security
Publications
- ‘COSCO’S HAMBURG TERMINAL ACQUISITION: LESSONS FOR EUROPE’, War on the Rocks, 28/11/2022
- ‘“With a little help from my friends”: China turns to Africa to bolster food security’, MERICS, 07/10/2022
- ‘Dependence in Europe’s Relations with China’, Editor, ETNC Report, April 2022
- ‘Italy's embrace of the Belt and Road Initiative: populist foreign policy and political marketing’, International Affairs, Volume 98, Issue 3, May 2022, Pages 1033–1051
- ‘Italy and the Comprehensive Agreement on Investments: disappointment over the process’ Asia Europe Journal, 20, pages39–46 (2022), 25/07/2021
- ‘Demystifying China’s Role in Italy’s Port of Trieste, The Diplomat’, 15/10/2020,
- ‘Europe's Manoeuvring on 5G Technology: The Case of Italy’, IAI Commentaries, 24/09/2020,
- 'How the Fourth Technological Revolution is shaping the EU's view of China', EU-China Observer, #4.19,
Thesis
The securitization of Chinese foreign direct investments in the EU
The phenomenon of foreign direct investments (FDI) originating from China and flowing into the European Union has been receiving growing attention, particularly in light of the implications Chinese FDI carry that transcend economy. This research seeks to give its contribution to the state of the art by looking at the phenomenon through the lens of the theory of securitisation of non-traditional security issues (NTS). Rather than measuring the nature, scope and impact of Chinese FDI in the EU, this project seeks to understand why the EU and two states, Italy and the UK, have begun to view Chinese FDI as a security threat and thus, transformed an economic matter into a security concern.
Supervisors
Dr Nicola Leveringhaus
Dr Jan Knoerich