The Diplomat
Last Wednesday was held the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Elcano Royal Institute, which addressed the ten main areas of work of this think tank -governance and development, peace and security, democracy, climate, economy and technology, the future of Europe, Latin America, the rise of China, the US and the new world order, the neighborhood and the image and influence of Spain- and the five cross-cutting themes that will permeate its activity throughout 2024: cities, culture, gender, migration and health.
The meeting of the Board of Trustees, which was held at the Royal Institute’s headquarters in Madrid, was chaired by José Juan Ruiz, president of the Elcano Royal Institute, and was attended by, among others, Miguel Arias Cañete, representative of the Partido Popular on the Board of Trustees; María Dolores de Cospedal, vice-president of the Elcano Royal Institute; Enrique Iglesias, former Ibero-American Secretary General; Trinidad Jiménez, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director of Global Public Affairs Strategy at Telefónica; Emilio Lamo de Espinosa, former President of the Elcano Royal Institute; Charles Powell, Director of the Elcano Royal Institute; and Javier Solana, former High Representative of the European Council.
José Juan Ruiz announced the incorporation of two new entities to the Board of Trustees, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and the Hijos de Rivera Corporation, and highlighted that the first annual Elcano Futures Forum will be held in 2024. He also reported on the recently created REDElcano, which will help to address global issues such as the aerospace industry, sustainable fuels, critical raw materials, disinformation, connectivity and digital infrastructures or migrations -in European, Latin American and American perspective- among others.
The Director of the Elcano Royal Institute, Charles Powell, then presented the 2024 Action Plan, which is organized around the ten thematic axes that the Institute has defined as the most relevant to focus its research agenda: global governance and development; peace and international security; democracy; climate and energy transition; economy and technology; the future of Europe; Latin America; the rise of China, the United States and the new world order; the challenges and opportunities of our neighborhood; and the image and influence of Spain. In addition, there are five cross-cutting themes (cities, culture, gender, migration and health), which are present in several lines of work and which are interrelated and intersect with each other.
Among the research production and activities to be carried out next year, the following stand out: the transversal axis on Global Health (with a particular focus on Latin America), a new line of work on the water-energy nexus, a collaborative project of technological-geopolitical analysis in co-authorship with the Tecnalia research team on emerging technologies (with a pilot project on quantum technologies) and the contribution to the reflection on the electric car in its economic, industrial and geopolitical dimensions.
In addition, Elcano will participate in 2024 in several European projects on different areas of research, such as RAN-Policy Support (on prevention of violent radicalization and deradicalization), IBERIFIER (on disinformation), RECONNECT China (on the EU-China relationship) and others on climate governance (with the support of the European Climate Foundation), the challenges of official development aid and economic security in Asia (with the help of the Korea Foundation and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan).
