Francesca Leso is a PhD candidate in the program Politics, Policies and International Relations at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), under the supervision of Dr. Elisabeth Johansson-Nogués. Her PhD dissertation explores how thewar in Ukraine impacted Eastern Europe’s geopolitical landscape with special emphasis on EU-Ukraine relations and the EU’s role in the region. Her research fields of interest are the European Union’s foreign policy towards its Eastern neighbourhood and critical geopolitics. She holds a MA in International Relations from the University of Bologna and a MA in International Security from IBEI.