He holds a BA from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and an MA in Arab Studies on a Fulbright scholarship from Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. He completed his studies at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He specializes in international relations, political Islam, and transitions to democracy in the Arab world, where he has lived for over sixteen years.

He is currently associate professor at the Instituto de Empresa (IE), and has lectured at at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Georgetown University, Saint Louis University, Universidad San Pablo-CEU, and the Universitat de Barcelona.

Professor Amirah-Fernández has published numerous articles and is co-editor of the book North Africa: Politics, Region, and the Limits of Transformation (London and New York: Routledge, 2008). He is also co-editor of the book The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: Assessing the First Decade (Madrid: Real Instituto Elcano and FRIDE, 2005). He is currently preparing a book on Iran and the stability of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

He has worked for the United Nations in New York and for Human Rights Watch in Washington DC. He is a frequent commentator in the Spanish and international media. Professor Amirah-Fernández speaks Spanish, Arabic, English, and French.

Félix Arteaga has a doctorate in Political Science from Madrid’s Universidad Complutense, is a graduate in Law from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), a graduate from the Academia General Militar (R.) and has a diploma in National Security Management from Washington’s National Defense University. He is currently Professor of European Security at the Instituto General Gutierrez Mellado (MoD-UNED, Madrid) and Assistant Professor of International Relations at Madrid’s Universidad Carlos III.

He has been NATO fellow, WEU-ISS visiting fellow and research fellow for the Instituto de Cuestiones Internacionales (INCI), the Instituto de Seguridad Interior (Guardia Civil) and the Centro Superior de Estudios de la Defensa Nacional (Madrid). He was formerly the Director of the European Commission Security Sector Reform Programme in Paraguay.

He researches and lectures on international security, security and defence planning, European security and defence policies and national security management. His publications include El planeamiento estratégico de seguridad y defensa en España (IUGGM, Madrid, 2006) and La identidad europea de seguridad y defensa (Biblioteca Nueva, 1999).

A Doctor in Economics (with honours) from Madrid’s Universidad Complutense, Pablo Bustelo is Professor of Applied Economics at the same university. He was Director of Economic Studies at the Instituto Complutense de Asia from 1993 to 1997 and Coordinator of Asian Studies at the Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales from 1998 to 2000. He is currently Director of the Grupo de Estudios Económicos de Asia Oriental (GEEAO) at the Universidad Complutense: http://www.ucm.es/info/eid/geeao.htm.

A specialist in the economies of East Asia, economic development and globalisation, he is the author, co-author or coordinator of 12 books and author of more than 70 articles. His recent publications include: El nuevo orden internacional en Asia-Pacífico (co-coordinadot with F. Delage, Pirámide, Madrid, 2002), La cuadratura del círculo: posibilidades y retos de la triangulación España – América Latina – Asia- Pacífico (co-coordinator with J. A. Sotillo, La Catarata, Madrid, 2002), Estructura económica de Asia oriental (con C. García e I. Olivié, Akal, Madrid, 2004) y La presencia española en países de fuerte crecimiento: China e India (con L. Cacho y J. J. Zaballa, Ediciones Círculo de Empresarios, Madrid, 2006).

A Doctor in Political Science and Sociology, Carmen González-Enríquez is currently a Professor at the UNED’s Department of Political Science and lectures on immigration in several academic institutions. She has been visiting scholar at Oxford University’s Centre on Migration Policy and Society and at the Hungarian Institute of Political Science in Budapest, and has directed a number of research projects on migration, including “Immigration and Representation of Workers’ Interests”, “Immigration and Political Parties System in Spain. A Comparative Perspective”, “Preventing Ethnic Conflict in Immigrants’ Neighbourhoods” and “The Challenge of Immigration in the Spain-Morocco Relationship”. She has also taken part in various research projects financed by the European Commission, such as POLITIS (Active Civic Participation of Third Country Immigrants), CLANDESTINO (Undocumented Migration: Counting the Uncountable) and EURONAT (Representation of Europe and the Nation in the Current and Prospective Member-states).

Paul Isbell is the Director of the Energy Programme and Senior Analyst responsible for the 'US-Spain Relations' project. Between 2002 and 2008 he headed the Institute's International Economy and Trade Division. From September 2008, he is also a Senior Associate at CSIS, connected to the Europe and Americas programmes, and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue where he collaborates on energy issues pertinent to Latin America. Previously he worked as an economist for the investment-banking division of Banco Santander, providing analysis on the evolution of Latin American economies, as well as for a number of Spanish (Alcalá de Henares, ICADE-Pontificia Comillas, CUNEF, Nebrija), American (George Washington, Syracuse) and Latin American (Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires) universities and business schools (Instituto de Empresa, Escuela de Organización Industrial). He began his professional career as an economist at the London Office of NERA (National Economic Research Associates).

His current areas of expertise include the economics and geopolitics of energy (with a special emphasis on Latin America), transatlantic relations (with a special emphasis on the US-Spain bilateral relationship and the potential for cooperation within the Spain-US-Latin America transatlantic triangle), and international economics and political economy. Mr Isbell is one of the principal editors of the Anuario Iberoamericano Elcano/EFE, the chief editor of the Elcano Index of Strategic Risks and Opportunities for the Spanish Economy and Director of the Elcano Royal Institute’s working group on energy issues. He is a frequent contributor to the Spanish and international press and appears regularly on the Spanish TV and Radio media. He is a graduate of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he completed his BSFS in International Economics, and of the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, where he completed his MA.

Carlos Malamud has a Doctorate in History of America (with honours) from Madrid’s Universidad Complutense. He is currently Professor of Latin American History at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED). From 1996 to 2002 he was head of the Latin American Programme and Deputy Director of the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset. Between 2000 and 2002 he was head of the Latin America Security and Defence Observatory based at the Ortega y Gasset Institute. He is deputy director of the Latin American Electoral Observatory. In 1992/93 he was Spanish Senior Visiting Fellow en el Saint Antony’s College, Oxford University.

His most recent publications include Sin marina, sin tesoro y casi sin soldados. La financiación de la reconquista de América, 1810–1826 (Centro de Estudios Bicentenario, Santiago de Chile, 2007) and Historia de América (Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 2005). He has edited, among others, The Financing of Politics: Latin American and European Perspectives (with Eduardo Posada-Carbó, Institute for the Study of the Americas, London, 2005) and Latin America and the Multinational Drug Trade (with Elizabeth Joyce, ILAS-Macmillan Press, London, 1998).

He is a regular contributor on international relations in the Spanish media (press, radio and TV).

A Doctor in Political Science from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Ignacio Molina is also an Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the same university. He holds an MA in Social Sciences from the Juan March Institute (Madrid), a Master in European Community Law and two Degrees in Law and Political Science from the University of Granada. He has been a Visiting Fellow, as a Fulbright grantee, at Harvard University, and a Junior Visitor at Nuffield College (Oxford University). Prior to joining the Elcano Royal Institute in 2008, he was Area Co-ordinator for the EU at the Observatory of Spanish Foreign Policy (Opex, Fundación Alternativas). He has taught in more than 20 universities and postgraduate centres and has participated in a dozen national and international research projects.

His areas of interest and expertise cover Spanish EU policy-making, the relations between member states and the Union, the Europeanisation of the Spanish government and, more broadly, the analysis of the State’s institutional capacity and the policy-making process in Spain. He has written several chapters in comparative volumes such as ‘The Role of National Executives’ in Europeanization and Democratic Governance (Edward Elgar, with C. Colino), ‘National governments and the EU’ in Handbook of Public Administration and Policy in the EU (Dekker, with C. Colino), ‘La adaptación a la Unión Europea del poder ejecutivo español’ in La europeización del sistema político español (Istmo) and contributions on Spain in The National Co-ordination of EU Policy (Oxford University Press), Bureaucratic Elites in Western European States, (Oxford University Press), Administering the Summit (Macmillan, with P. Heywood) and Foreign Ministries in the European Union (Palgrave, with F. Rodrigo). He is the author of the dictionary Conceptos Fundamentales de Ciencia Política (Madrid, 1998) and co-author of Avances y obstáculos en el fortalecimiento del Estado en Centroamérica (INAP 2007). He has also contributed to various journals such as the Revue française d'administration publique, Public Administration, Política Exterior and Revista de Estudios Políticos.

A Doctor in Political Science and Sociology from Madrid’s Universidad Complutense, he is currently Professor at the university’s Department of Sociology.

He has taken part in several research projects sponsored by the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset, the Xunta de Galicia, the Instituto Madrileño de Formación y Empleo and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. He has published various monographs and contributed to a number of collective publications.

Iliana Olivié has a doctorate in Economics and Business from Madrid's Universidad Complutense (2002 Research Prize awarded by the Real Academia de Doctores). She was a technical assistant at the Planning and Evaluation Office under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Secretary of State for International Cooperation and Iberoamérica. She is currently a member of the Universidad Complutense's Grupo de Estudios Económicos de Asia Oriental (GEEAO).

She specialises in development economy, financial globalisation and the financial integration of middle-income countries and emerging economies, and international development cooperation. She has lectured for the Universidad Complutense's Masters in International Relations and Communications (East Asian module, from 1999 to 2001) and Masters in International Cooperation (Economic, Political and Social Structures of Asian Countries module, from 2000 to 2002). She is the author or co-author of a number of books and articles, including Economías de Asia Oriental (Akal, 2004) with P. Bustelo and C. García and Las Crisis de la Globalización (CES, 2005).

A graduate in Geography and History from Madrid’s Universidad Complutense, Jaime Otero completed his studies at Madrid’s Diplomatic School, at the Institut d’Étude Politique in Paris and at the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset.

From 1990 to 1998 he was at the Instituto de Cuestiones Internacionales y Política Exterior (INCIPE) as Programme Coordinator and subsequently Deputy Director. Until September of 2003 he was head of the Instituto Cervantes in Utrecht (The Netherlands).

As Coordinator and Editor of the INCIPE’s publications he has taken part in various research projects in the field of international affairs. He has written extensively on the Spanish language’s position in the world.

Professor and Chair in Political Science and Security Studies at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (King Juan Carlos University) in Madrid. He also teaches postgraduate courses at General Gutiérrez Mellado University Institute and Ortega y Gasset University Institute.

Member of the Council on Global Terrorism established by the Atlantic Monthly Foundation and of the academic committee of the Queen Sofía Center for the Study of Violence. Advisor to the Center for Global Counter Terrorism Cooperation, he belongs to the United Nations roster of experts on terrorism prevention and the terrorism studies programme board at the University of St Andrews. Is Academic Director of the Permanent Seminar on Terrorism Studies at Ortega y Gasset Foundation. Between 2004 and 2006 he served as Senior Adviser on Antiterrorist Policy to the Minister of Interior, Government of Spain. Chairman of the European Commission expert group on violent radicalization.

Contributing Editor of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, also belongs to the editorial boards of Terrorism and Political Violence, Democracy and Security, Cultures et Conflits and Sécurité Globale.

Author of a large number of articles and chapters on terrorism and counterterrorism, which appeared in six languages, his recent books include Terrorismo y Antiterrorismo [Terrorism and Antiterrorism] (Barcelona: Ediciones Paidós, 1998); European Democracies Against Terrorism. Governmental Policies and Intergovernmental Cooperation (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2000); the Spanish best-seller Patriotas de la Muerte. Quiénes han militado en ETA y por qué [Patriots of Death. Who Joined ETA and Why] (Madrid: Taurus, 2001); Terrorismo Global [Global Terrorism] (Madrid: Taurus, 2003); El Nuevo Terrorismo Islamista. Del 11-S al 11-M [The New Islamist Terrorism. From 9/11 to 3/11] (Madrid: Temas de Hoy, 2004); and Terrorismus Global (Aktionsfeld Europa, Hamburg: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 2005). Also co-author de State of the Struggle. Report on the Battle against Global Terrorism (Maryland: Brookings Institution Press, 2006).

Federico Steinberg is the Senior Analyst for Economy and International Trade at the Elcano Royal Institute and a Professor of Economic Analysis at Madrid’s Universidad Autónoma. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the Universidad Autónoma, an MSc in Politics of the World Economy from the London School of Economics and a Master in International Affairs from Columbia University. He has undertaken postgraduate research at Georgetown University and Harvard University and has taught at the Madrid campuses of Suffolk University and George Washington University, and at the Masters degrees in International Relations and Development of ICADE and the Ortega y Gasset University Institute. Between 2002 and 2004 he was involved in a variety of development projects for the World Bank as a consultant in Washington DC, Ghana and Bolivia, as well as at the Executive Office of the Secretary General at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

His areas of expertise include political economy of international trade and of World Trade Organisation negotiations, international financial governance, new energy geopolitics and the rise of emerging powers and their impact on global economic governance. He has taken part in several research projects sponsored by the European Science Foundation, the World Bank, the United Nations, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, the Fundación Carolina and the Regional Government of Madrid. He is author and co-author of a number of books, book chapters and articles for specialist journals, both Spanish and international.

Carlos Oya has a PhD in Development Economics from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he also completed his MSc in Development Economics with Distinction. He has been Senior Lecturer of Political Economy of Development in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS since 2002.

He specialises in the political economy of development in Subsaharan Africa and particularly Senegal, Mozambique, Zambia, Gambia and Mauritania. His main research interests are: the political economy of agrarian development, poverty and rural labour, international development aid and capitalist development in Africa. He has contributed to journals such as the European Journal of Development Research, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Feminist Economics, Journal of Agrarian Change and to several issues of Claves de la Economía Mundial. More recently, he has edited a book titled Economía Política del Desarrollo en África (co-edited with A. Santamaría, Akal, 2007) in which he is author or co-author of several chapters. He is also editor of the Africa section in Claves de la Economía Mundial, contributor editor for the Economist Intelligence Unit and co-editor of the Journal of Agrarian Change. Over the past 10 years he has also carried out consultancy work for the UNDP, the World Bank, Save the Children, the International Poverty Centre and ILO, among other organisations.

Alicia Sorroza has a degree in International Relations from the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations of Argentina’s Universidad Católica de Córdoba and an MA in International Cooperation from the Universidad Complutense’s Instituto Universitario de Desarrollo y Cooperación. She is currently preparing for a Doctorate and Diploma in Advanced European Studies at the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset in Madrid.

In addition to having cooperated with the Centro Español de Relaciones Internacionales (Fundación Ortega y Gasset), Alicia Sorroza has taken part in various research projects on international and strategic affairs for both private and public organisations. She has published a number of papers and experience in teaching and research in both the university and business worlds.

Lara Lázaro Touza holds an MSc in Environmental Assessment and Evaluation from the London School of Economics and a BSc in Economics from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She is PhD candidate at the London School of Economics from which she has recived various scholarships for her research.

Her career has developed both in the private sector and in academia. She was appointed Fellow at the London School of Economics where she lectured and taught both at undergraduate and at postgraduate level. She has been guest lecturer at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ICADE, Escuela de Administración de Empresas and Colegio Universitario Cardenal Cisneros. She has also lectured on climate change for FNAC’s employees and managers.

Her research interests include environmental economics, environmental politics and policies with a special focus on stated preference techniques, sustainability criteria and environmental crises management. She has published various articles on valuation and management of oil spills, policies to manage global environmental resources, climate change and environmental impact assessment. She has presented her research at national and international conferences at Universidad de Santiago de Compostela and at the UK Network of Environmental Economists Conference at the Royal Society in London.

Carlota García Encina holds a degree in Business Administration from Madrid’s Universidad Autónoma and an MA in Security and Defence from the Centro de Estudios de la Defensa Nacional (CESEDEN) and the Universidad Complutense. PhD student and Diploma in Advanced Studies in Economy and International Relations at the Universidad Autónoma and in Contemporary Latin America at the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset. Scholarship from US Department of State for the US National Security Program, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) University of California San Diego (USCD).

She has published different analyses and working papers on security and defence, and Latin American issues. She has given lectures and attended workings groups on NATO´s future, defence transformation, and the Iraq war. She has worked at the Ministry of Defence’s press office and its review Revista Española de Defensa. She has experience in both teaching and research.