Narcís Serra has been the President of the CIDOB Foundation, since 2000. During this time, he has been the driving force behind the creation of the Barcelona Institute for International Studies (IBEI), which was founded with the desire to turn Barcelona into a centre of reference in the study of this discipline.

Narcís Serra has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Barcelona, where he held the position of Assistant Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics. Between 1970 and 1972, he studied Monetary Economics as a Research Fellow at the London School of Economics. In 1973, he obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), and, three years later, in 1976, he obtained a post of Professor in Economic Theory, first at the University of Seville and then at the UAB.

Following this university experience, in 1977 he was appointed Catalan Minister of Town and Country Planning and Public Works in the Government of the Generalitat chaired by Josep Tarradellas, and in April 1979, he was elected Mayor of Barcelona. In 1982, he was appointed Spanish Minister of Defence in the Government of Felipe González, and in 1991, Vice President of the Spanish Government. From 1986 until 2004, Narcís Serra was member of the Spanish Parliament representing the province of Barcelona.

His main areas of interest are the development of foreign policy, the relationship between the Armed Forces and civil society and the global governance mechanisms, especially in the field of security. Recently, he has published “La Transición Militar” (Barcelona 2008) and, together with Joseph Stiglitz, “The Washington Consensus Reconsidered” (Oxford 2008).

Curriculum vitae (pdf 92kB)

Dr. Jordi Vaquer i Fanés is, since December 2008, the Director of CIDOB, an international relations think tank based in Barcelona, Spain. He is the coordinator of EU4Seas, a European Commission funded research program bringing together partner institutions from 8 European countries to study the effects of EU policies on cooperation around the Mediterranean, Baltic, Caspian and Black Seas. Dr. Vaquer entered the CIDOB staff as the Europe Programme Coordinator in 2007. Prior to this he worked in the international affairs department of the Government of Catalonia, where he served in the Europe and in the Asia and Mediterranean sections before he became the Head of the International Relations Office. He also has professional experience as a guest lecturer of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, as an observer in elections in 7 different countries, and as a junior consultant in European Commission-funded projects. Most of his publications in English and Spanish focus on Spanish foreign policy, relations between the European Union and the countries of the Maghreb, and the conflict of Western Sahara. Dr. Vaquer i Fanés received a master’s degree from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, and he completed a Ph.D. in International Relations at the London School of Economics in 2004.

Curriculum vitae (pdf 39kB)