CIDOB travels to the Guadalajara International Book Fair 2025, with Barcelona as Guest of Honor

Once again, the Guadalajara International Book Fair became a meeting point for the publishing industry, hosting authors from all continents and in different languages, as well as providing a space for discussion on major issues in international current affairs. In this edition, Josep Borrell and Pol Morillas joined the voices from Barcelona who travelled to the Guadalajara International Book Fair to contribute to the analysis of contemporary challenges and open new perspectives for critical, plural and transformative thinking.

As part of FIL Pensamiento, the programme organised by the University of Guadalajara around major current issues, Josep Borrell participated in the dialogue "Muro a Muro. Por unos dólares más. Nuevos códigos políticos" alongside Jorge G. Castañeda, writer, commentator and professor at New York University, and former Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico. The dialogue, moderated by Diego Petersen Farah, addressed the current global context, marked by the deterioration of international norms and institutions. Borrell analysed the foreign policy of the Trump Administration and its consequences for European security, highlighting the need for the so-called "European rearmament" to be carried out on a collective basis, creating joint capabilities among the different European armies.

Josep Borrell and Pol Morillas also took part in the international meeting of Government and Civil Society "Innovación y participación en la era post burocrática: instrumentos para la ampliación del espacio cívico y la inclusión ciudadana", held on 2 December as part of FIL Pensamiento.

In the panel "Diálogo transatlántico: reconfigurando la relación Estado-ciudadanía en América Latina y Europa", Josep Borrell discussed, together with José Miguel Insulza, Chilean lawyer and politician, the articulation of a common agenda between the European Union and Latin America to promote stability, sustainable development and a fairer and more balanced international order, in an international scenario marked by geopolitical tensions, democratic setbacks and a crisis of multilateralism.

The following dialogue addressed the challenge faced by civil society to defend and reimagine public space as a ground for resistance to authoritarianism and for collective action and democratic reconstruction, and featured the analysis of Pol Morillas, Director of CIDOB and author of "En el patio de los mayores: Europa ante un mundo hostil", together with Matías Bianchi and Maite Azuela, moderated by Fernanda Rodríguez. In the current context of democratic regression and crisis of multilateralism, Morillas recalled the need to use politics to strengthen social fabrics and provide responses to the fears that fuel populism.

CIDOB’s participation in the Guadalajara International Book Fair reflects the institution’s commitment to offering a view of the world from Barcelona and contributing to the analysis of international relations and the current global context with a unique perspective.