[1] She holds a MPhil in International Relations and an MA in Terrorism studies from the London School of Economics (LSE).

[2] A childhood friend was arrested for involvement in the Red Brigades and Napoleoni wrote her PhD on the group.

[3][1] In the early 1980s, she worked at the National Bank of Hungary on the convertibility of the Hungarian forint.

[4] She is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundación Ideas para el Progreso,[5] the think tank of Spain's Socialist Party, and she is a partner with Oxfam Italia.

[9] She has worked as a foreign correspondent and columnist for the Spanish newspaper El Pais..[10] She is chairperson of the Club de Madrid group studying the financing of terrorism.