Sergio Miracola

I am a PhD candidate in Political History at IMT, with a research focused on Chinese foreign policy and its strategic culture. My areas of expertise include also theories of international relations, strategic studies and asymmetrical warfare, such as insurgency, terrorism, and cyber warfare.

 

2008.  Bachelor's Degree in International and Diplomatic Affairs, at the University of Bologna, Forlì Campus. Final Thesis: Theory of War from Ancient to Modern Times.

2009. Intentive Chinese Language Course at the Beijing Language and Culture University.

 2010-2011. Overseas Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, majoring in International Relations, Military Studies, and Global Strategy.

2012. Master's Degree in International and Diplomatic Affairs, majoring in International Politics and Security. Final Thesis: American Counterinsurgency Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan between Strategic Culture and Terrorism.

Research Interest

My research deals quite extensively with Chinese strategic culture. Specifically, the major objective is to classify and organize the theoretical and operational structure of people’s war doctrine. The research tries, therefore, to look at three specific stages: doctrine formation, doctrine operationalization, and doctrine evolution. These three stages translate themselves historically in the Warring States’ period; Chinese civil war; and the decade from 2001 to 2012, which opened up a new phase of Chinese strategic culture, due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the establishment of the fifth generation of politicians in Chinese domestic politics. This three-stage approach would try to indentify the seeds of strategic culture, instead of dealing with just specific and limited historical periods which could prove to be
misleading.

Therefore the study of strategic culture, specifically in the Chinese case, would combine the classical realist view with the constructivist one, in order to understand how the typical strategic tools of China's foreign policy are rooted in its military and strategic history.