David García Cantalapiedra holds a PhD in Political Science and Sociology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, receiving an Extraordinary Award and the 2001 Defense Prize.

He is a Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

He is Director of the Grupo Complutense de Estudios Internacionales y Estratégicos (GEIS-UCM). He is also a Professor of US Foreign Policy at the Spanish Diplomatic School and has taught the General Staff Course at the Armed Forces School and the National Defense Course at CESEDEN.

He was a Senior Research Fellow (PR) in US Foreign Policy and Transatlantic Relations at the Real Instituto Elcano (2007-2009); he worked for NATO as a Fellow at the Strategy Review Group in Afghanistan, and as a member of the NATO Nuclear Posture Working Group organized by USDTRA and the NATO Nuclear Policy Planning Directorate from 2008 to 2011. He was subsequently an ECA-US State Department Fellow in 2012 and subsequently a Loyola Visiting Professor at Ateneo de Manila University and Visiting Professor at the United Nations University for Peace in Manila (2013-2014). He was subsequently a European Union Center Fellow in Singapore in 2017. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Coimbra, King’s College, Georgetown University, and the University of Mary Washington.

Latest publications

• García Cantalapiedra, David (ed.) Spain, Europe and the Western Security Policy. The Future of Europe. Springer, 2024.

• García Cantalapiedra, David. “Hacia un nuevo concepto de seguridad: la crisis de los Estudios de Seguridad en el declive del orden internacional liberal multilateral”. Cuadernos de estrategia nº 222 "Crisis migratorias como elemento de coerción internacional". Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos. Ministerio de Defensa, 18 de diciembre de 2023, pp. 47-97.

• García Cantalapiedra, David y Mónica Román. “Interacción de las grandes potencias en Asia Oriental: EE.UU., la RPC, India y Rusia”. Cuadernos de estrategia nº 219 "Asia Oriental, la interdependencia como causa de conflicto". Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos. Ministerio de Defensa, septiembre de 2023, pp. 157-215.

• García Cantalapiedra, David. “La separación de poderes en el sistema constitucional de EE.UU.: equilibrios y checks and balances”. Vote for America. Cómo entender las elecciones en Estados Unidos, editado por Cristina Crespo Palomares. Los Libros de la Catarata, 2022, pp. 47-68.

• García Cantalapiedra, David. “La competición Estados Unidos-República Popular China y el dilema de seguridad en el Indo-Pacifico”. El Sistema Internacional del Siglo XXI, editado por Paloma González del Miño. Tyrant lo Blanch, 2020, pp. 307-333.

• García Cantalapiedra, David y Gustavo Palomares Lerma. Imperium. La politica exterior de EE.UU. del siglo XX al XXI. Tyrant lo Blanch, 2019.  

Julio Cañero Serrano. Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Literature (1993) and PhD in English Philology (1998) by the Universidad de Alcalá. He has five six-year teaching terms and four six-year research terms. He has directed or been responsible for fifteen research projects or grants and has participated in an additional seventeen. He coordinates the UAH High Performance Research Group “American Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies (AMICUSS)”. He has supervised or co-supervised seven doctoral theses. He has conducted research stays at the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of Limerick; and the City College of New York. He is a member of the UAH Teaching Innovation Group of Excellence “Areté 2030: Sustainable Development Goals and Teaching Innovation in Humanities.  He has been  Deputy Director (2003-2011), Academic Secretary (2011-2013) and Director (2013-2019) at Instituto Franklin-UAH. Since 2019, he has held the position of Vice President for International Relations at the Universidad de Alcalá.  His research and teaching areas are primarily focused on Latinos in the United States, as well as American popular culture and political organization.

José Antonio Gurpegui Palacios. Full Professor of American Studies at the Modern Philology Department of the Universidad de Alcalá. He holds a PhD in English Philology from the Universidad Complutense and a PhD in Law from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, both located in Madrid. He was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University from 1994 to 1996 and a fellow member of the Matthiessen Room of that same university.

He was the Director of Instituto Franklin de la Universidad de Alcalá from 2003 to 2013. He is the President of HispaUSA (Spanish Association for the dialogue and study of Hispanic communities in the United States), Honorary Rector of the UNADE (Universidad Americana de Europa) and member the Board of Editorial Advisors of the “Recovery Project” of the US Hispanic Literary Heritage from Houston University.

He has published and edited over thirty books, and he is the author of the novels Dejar de recorder no puedo (Huerga y Fierro, 2018), Ninguna mujer llorará por mí (Ediciones B, 2021), and Tiempo de sangres (Universo de Letras, 2023).

Gustavo Díaz Matey. Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the UCM and an MA in Intelligence and Security Studies from the University of Salford, Manchester. He currently co-directs the Grupo Complutense de Estudios Internacionales y Estratégicos (GEIS-UCM). Between 2010 and 2019, he worked as an Intelligence Manager at ICEX Spain Export and Investment, and since 2012, he has been a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. He combines his academic work with participating in courses, seminars, and master's degrees at various Spanish universities. Throughout his career, he has specialized in intelligence studies and the analysis of the role of intelligence services in the 21st century. 

He is the author of the books Inteligencia teórica (D.V. Chavín, 2009), Intelligence Services in the 21^st Century (D.V. Chavín, 2011), Practical Guide to Security and Defense (Aranzadi, 2022), and Disinformation and Counternarratives in International Security: Cognitive Competition (TBP in october 2025). He has also published in specialized institutions and journals such as the Elcano Royal Institute, The International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, RIEAS, UNISCI, and CIBOB. His latest article, "New Horizons in Intelligence Cooperation: Spain and the Evolution of EU and NATO Intelligence," was published in May 2025. He has also participated in various research projects, including serving as principal investigator of the European CITEX project (Project number: 504146-LLP-1-ES-LEONARDO-LMP. Project Agreement number: 2009–2189/001–001), which aimed to bring intelligence practices closer to Spanish SMEs.

Raquel Barras Tejudo. Adjunct Professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid since 2018.

She has worked as an Advisor in the Congress of Deputies, the Presidency of the Government of Spain, the Department of National Security, the Community of Madrid, and, currently, in the Spanish Senate. Her responsibilities include analyzing the risks and opportunities of policies within each administration. She also collaborates with sectoral and institutional leaders. She also prepares position papers and technical reports. She also prepares interventions and speeches, position papers, and parliamentary initiatives.

She is a member of the Grupo Complutense de Estudios Internacionales y Estratégicos GEIS-UCM, UNISCI, and the Center for the Global Common Good at the Universidad de Valencia (UFV).

PhD in International Security and International Relations from the General Gutiérrez Mellado University Institute (UNED); European Master's Degree on Human Rights and Democratization from the European Inter-University Center (European consortium of 41 universities), Venice, Italy; Degree in Political Science and Administration from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid; postgraduate programs in leadership at IESE Business School and Georgetown University.

Her main research areas are international security, with a special focus on North Africa, the Sahel, West Africa, and the Horn of Africa; as well as hybrid threats, organized crime, terrorism, climate change, demography, and migration movements. She has extensive teaching and research experience, as well as academic management, organizing academic events, publishing, participating in congresses and conferences, and tutoring academic papers.

Latest publications

• Barras Tejudo, Raquel. “Spanish Security Policy in the Greater Maghreb: Skeletons in the Closet, Commonplaces and Irrelevance”. Spain, Europe, and Western Security Policy.  The Europeanization of Spanish  Security and Defense Policy and its Limitations, editado por David García Cantalapiedra. Springer, 2024, pp. 75-120.

• Barras Tejudo, Raquel. "Gran Magreb: un complejo regional de seguridad a las puertas de Europa". Seguridad y Defensa: relaciones entre la Unión Europea y el Magreb, dirigido y coordinado por Reinaldo Batista Cordova, RicardoGómez Laorga y María.Hernández Moreno. Dykinson, 2024, pp. 195-224.

• Barras Tejudo, Raquel. "Complejo regional de seguridad y flujos migratorios en el Gran Magreb". Cuadernos de estrategia, no. 222, CESEDEN, pp. 275-305.

• Barras Tejudo, Raquel. "NATO and the Mediterranean: From the Southern Flank to the Other Front?". NATO and the Greater Maghreb: Geopolitics, Threats, and Great Powers, editado por David García Cantalapiedra. Lexington Books, 2002, pp. 7-23.

• Barras Tejudo, Raquel. “Organized Crime in Southeast Asia: Implications for Regional Security”. Southeast Asia: Redefined Strategic Order, Challenges and Impacts to Regional and Global Security, editado por Antonio Marquina. Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2022, pp. 137-171.

• Barras Tejudo, Raquel y David Garcia Cantalapiedra. "Hacia un «gran Magreb». La UE, la seguridad europea y el declive del concepto MENA". bie3: Boletín IEEE (Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos), no. 18, 2020, pp. 982-1002.

• Barras Tejudo, Raquel. "Norte de África y Sahel: repercusiones para la seguridad internacional". El sistema internacional del siglo XXI: dinámicas, actores y relaciones internacionales, editado por  Paloma González del Miño. Tirant lo Blanch, 2020, pp. 457-480.

Natividad Fernández Sola. Full Professor of International Law and International Relations at the Universidad de Zaragoza. She is also a Jean Monnet Professor at the same university. She held the Prince of Asturias Professorship at Georgetown University from 2017 to 2020. Previously, she was a visiting professor at the Université Panthéon-Assas in Paris (2017) and the Higher School of Economics in Moscow (2012-2014), and a visiting professor at the College of Europe (2007, 2010, 2017) and the Institut Européen de Droits de l’Homme, René Cassin (2001-2011). In her training, she holds a Diploma from the European College of Security and Defence, High Level Course (2011). Her research interests and recent publications focus on European Union foreign and security policy, European diplomacy, Spanish foreign and defense policy, and transatlantic relations.