Marianna Lovato is a final-year PhD candidate at the School of Politics and International Relations (University College Dublin). Her PhD project focuses on the role of informality in EU foreign policy negotiations (CFSP/CSDP). She is also working on post-Brexit EU foreign policy cooperation, the effects of Russia's war of aggression on Europeanisation dynamics, and social relational conceptions of state power in international negotiations. Together with Ana Juncos and Heidi Maurer, she is leading a UACES research network, RELATE (European Studies in a Relational Universe). Her research has appeared in the Journal of Common Market Studies and the Journal of European Public Politics. Marianna holds an MPhil in European Politics from the University of Oxford and a BA in Political Science from SciencesPo Paris. She is involved in the Jean Monnet network RENPET, led by Robert Kissack at IBEI.