The FRIDE (''Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior'', Spanish for "Foundation for International Relations and Foreign Dialogue") was an independent European

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

headquartered in Madrid and Brussels. As of 2012, it was one of 55 think tanks in the country. It focused on the improvement of European views and ideas on various topics related to international development. It ceased its activities on 31 December 2015 due to lack of funding.

History

The think tank was founded by Diego Hidalgo in 1999. Hidalgo is also the founder of another think tank,

Club of Rome The Club of Rome is a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing list of global issues, global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in R ...

, and other similar organizations. FRIDE later became part of the European Think Tanks Group which also includes the German Development Institute, European Center for Development Policy Management and the Overseas Development Institute. In 2012, FRIDE was the 77th organization among top 100 non-US think tanks and the 75th among top 150 worldwide think tanks according to the global go to think tanks ranking developed by the international relations program of

the University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of founder and first pr ...

. In the same ranking, it was the 23rd

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

think tank among 75 institutions. FRIDE closed in December 2015.

Objectives and fields of study

The stated objective of the FRIDE was to expand the ideas on

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

's role in the international arena with special reference to

multilateralism In international relations, multilateralism refers to an alliance of multiple countries pursuing a common goal. Multilateralism is based on the principles of inclusivity, equality, and cooperation, and aims to foster a more peaceful, prosperous, an ...

, democratic values, security and

sustainable development Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...

. It was an international development think tank. Its major study fields includes democracy, emerging powers, development cooperation,

global governance Global governance (or world governance) refers to institutions that coordinate the behavior of transnationality, transnational actors, facilitate cooperation, resolve disputes, and alleviate collective action problems. Global governance broadly ...

, fragile states and energy security. In addition, it focused on peace and security, human rights, democracy promotion, and development and humanitarian aid. The specialization of FRIDE was on crisis and EU foreign policy, Europe and the reshaped global order, changing approaches to security and the new

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

Organizational structure

The organization had a president, a director a deputy director, a board of trustees, and an advisory committee. Pedro Solbes was the president and Giovanni Grevi the director of the organization.

Activities

FRIDE generally realized its activities through publications, research programs and events. The FRIDE publications were policy briefs, opinion articles in the newspapers and working papers developed by its research team and also, publishes books. In addition, FRIDE organized projects, studies and analyses. In 2010, the Club of Madrid and FRIDE functioned as the advisor bodies for the G20 summit held in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

. Its studies in the period of 2011-2012 were the 26th best policy report according to the global go to think tanks ranking.

Funders

FRIDE's major financial source was private donors and projects. In 2010, EU funding was just 0.68% of its revenues of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

2.47 million. The Madrid regional government contributed to FRIDE from 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:FRIDE 1999 establishments in Spain 2015 disestablishments in Spain Defunct organisations based in Spain Organisations based in Madrid Political and economic think tanks based in Europe Think tanks based in Spain Think tanks established in 1999 Think tanks disestablished in 2015