[1][9][10] He is a member of the scientific advisory board of the journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, of the Radicalisation Awareness Network of the Council of Europe, and of the "future scenarios" committee of the Stato maggiore della difesa [it] of the Italian Armed Forces.
[12] Based on terrorists' biographies, Orsini has developed what he calls the DRIA model (disintegration, reconstruction, integration, alienation) to explain the process of radicalization.
Lawrence Freedman, a scholar in strategic studies and resident reviewer for Foreign Affairs, included the work in his choice of the top three titles on "military, scientific, and technological" topics published in 2011,[25] while R. J.
[24] Anna Cento Bull, a professor of Italian history, politics, and fascism, found Orsini's conclusions provocative but "too one-sided to be convincing" in that they were marked by a total disregard not only for the historical and cultural context that gave rise to the Red Brigade but also the group's evolution over time; his usage of interviews and internal documents as objective sources drew criticism as well.
[28] Brian Sandberg, specializing in the intersections of religion, violence, and European political culture, found Orsini to have adopted a "completely ahistorical approach", adding that his failure to interrogate his source materials and superficial readings led him to problematic generalizations.
[33] Likewise, Paul J. Smith, a professor of National Security Affairs, described the book as a "powerful and sweeping study" that provided an "explanatory framework" for the Red Brigades' actions and motivations and made an "enormous contribution" to the field.
"[35] Soma Chaudhuri, a sociologist studying gender, social movements, and violence, said Orsini had analyzed the process by which ordinary people become killers through the concept of a "pedagogy of intolerance"—an "apocalyptic vision of history" where the world is seen as ruled by enemies of humanity—"pigs".
[36] She concluded: "This is a uniquely organized book, and it is my assessment that scholars in the future will be comparing it with Christopher Browning's monograph on Nazi holocaust, Ordinary Men.
"[36] Alex P. Schmid of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) praised the book as an "excellent" work in 2014 and highlighted it as an example of increasing numbers of good researchers joining the field.
[39] Christiane Olivo, specializing in the politics of social dissent in post-Communist East-Central Europe, was struck by Orsini's first-hand description of the rupture with the ambient "bourgeois ideology" of conflict-avoidance and self-preservation that resulted from the fascist groups' emphasis on the practice of combat sports like MMA, which instilled values of self-sacrifice and encouraged seeking out violent conflict (by brawling with far-left groups) as a valorous way of life.
[40] João Bernardo, a Portuguese historian of communism, capitalism, and fascism, stated that while the book "usefully" discusses the development of Bruno Rizzi's political stances from 1937 on, a topic that has been largely lacking in scholarship, he found the book to be "seriously wanting" by not including the broader debate of critical leftist thoughts on the Soviet Union beyond "Trotsky's views pertaining to the Stalinist USSR".
[46] In March 2024, Orsini wrote an article in Il Fatto Quotidiano stating that Italian soldiers and vehicles were on duty at the Constanța base in Romania and that they were in imminent danger from a Ukrainian military defeat.