Head, ECFR Madrid
Senior Policy Fellow
Technology and geopolitics, EU strategic autonomy; disinformation and influence operations
Spanish, English
José Ignacio Torreblanca is a senior policy fellow and head of the Madrid office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a position he has held since the launch of ECFR across Europe in 2007. His topics of focus include technology and geopolitics, EU strategic autonomy, and disinformation and influence operations.
Torreblanca was previously editorial director of the Spanish daily El País.
The digital space is a key battleground in today’s global power struggles. For the EU to become a global player in the geopolitics of technology, it needs an ambitious external digital strategy – one that allows it to secure its interests, values, and standing in a world of intensifying geo-technological competition.
A new compact could allow Ukraine, Balkans states and others to move closer to the EU and drive reform more powerfully than the current rigid rules
The new European security order should be based on Ukraine’s security, not Russia’s. This will require Ukraine to join NATO and the EU.
The conflict in Ukraine will change Europe forever. Experts from across ECFR’s network of offices describe the view of the war from Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Sofia, and Warsaw.
The EU cannot play a direct military role in Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine. But, through its support for Ukraine in the digital realm, the union can establish itself as a leader in global tech geopolitics.
In collaboration with the Embassy of Japan in Madrid, ECFR has organised a public virtual debate to explore how the EU and the Indo-Pacific can build a strategic alliance and how the EU-Japan relationship can drive this process
Esta es la primera reunión de nuestra iniciativa en ECFR diseñada para acompañar a las negociaciones oficiales del Consejo de Comercio y Tecnología (TTC) entre…
The EU is often described as a “regulatory superpower” benefitting from the so-called “Brussels effect.” But is the bloc also able to set its own rules and standards when it comes to new technologies?
New technologies are a significant force shaping international relations. If the EU wants to be more than a mediator between the US and China, it will need to change its mindset.
Con motivo de la escalada de tensión en las relaciones bilaterales entre España y Marruecos, y ante la previsible duración de la presente crisis, ECFR…
The digital space is a key battleground in today’s global power struggles. For the EU to become a global player in the geopolitics of technology, it needs an ambitious external digital strategy – one that allows it to secure its interests, values, and standing in a world of intensifying geo-technological competition.
New technologies are a significant force shaping international relations. If the EU wants to be more than a mediator between the US and China, it will need to change its mindset.
The EU cannot continue to rely on its regulatory power but must become a tech superpower in its own right. Referees do not win the game.
Europe must improve its early warning systems, supply chain resilience, medical R&D, and cyber security and technology, to act decisively in future emergencies
A new survey shows that, after the onset of the covid-19 crisis, there has been a rise in public support for unified EU action to tackle global threats
Spain, and Europe, need a new story about migration – it remains to be seen how the country will put this into practice
The results of the European election confront EU leaders with a considerable challenge: navigating a new, more fragmented, and polarised political environment
Pro-Europeans should create space for battles between competing visions of Europe
Europeans are losing faith in the EU
Three choices for a more integrated Europe
A new compact could allow Ukraine, Balkans states and others to move closer to the EU and drive reform more powerfully than the current rigid rules
The new European security order should be based on Ukraine’s security, not Russia’s. This will require Ukraine to join NATO and the EU.
The conflict in Ukraine will change Europe forever. Experts from across ECFR’s network of offices describe the view of the war from Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Sofia, and Warsaw.
The EU cannot play a direct military role in Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine. But, through its support for Ukraine in the digital realm, the union can establish itself as a leader in global tech geopolitics.
By weaponising migration in Ceuta to advance its Western Sahara claim, Morocco has made several major mistakes. Spain is part of an EU that is not in a joking mood on irregular migration blackmail.
The UK appears to have gone full circle in its approach to the rest of the world – and to have found no answers along the way
In an interview with the head of ECFR’s Madrid office, the Spanish foreign minister discusses how her country is adapting to the global challenges of the twenty-first century
The challenge for the EU is to match the innovation levels of the US and China and to defend its interests and principles against the American tech giants
From now on, citizens will understand much more clearly why it is said that democracies die bit by bit, until they suddenly succumb and it is too late
What will a Biden administration herald for Europe? The heads of ECFR’s seven offices report on the mood in the capitals
The EU is often described as a “regulatory superpower” benefitting from the so-called “Brussels effect.” But is the bloc also able to set its own rules and standards when it comes to new technologies?
What is the Western Sahara conflict is all about, and how will the most recent developments between Morocco and Spain influence this conflict?
What lessons can be drawn from Josep Borrell’s controversial visit to Moscow?
Head of ECFR’s Madrid Office, Jose Ignacio Torreblanca talks to the American historian, a Pulitzer Prize winner for Gulag, and expert on authoritarian populism about…
How much impact does the future US president have on the very concept of European sovereignty? Will the idea and initiatives to build more strategic autonomy in Europe be put back to bed with Joe Biden in the White House?
Europe’s digital transformation and sovereignty has become a question of existential importance. But what does it actually mean to be digital sovereign? Host Mark Leonard…
The over 90-hour European Council summit in Brussels ended with a deal on a €1.82 trillion financial package. What does…
The coronavirus crisis brought about financial hardship for the European Union, and many agree that a recovery fund would be needed to overcome it. In…
The EU members states have been caught up in a heated discussion on possible European ‘coronabonds’, a joint debt assistance by the Union to help…
Recently declared a global pandemic, it is undeniable that the coronavirus will be a global political, social, financial and economic crisis – requiring actions that…
In collaboration with the Embassy of Japan in Madrid, ECFR has organised a public virtual debate to explore how the EU and the Indo-Pacific can build a strategic alliance and how the EU-Japan relationship can drive this process
Esta es la primera reunión de nuestra iniciativa en ECFR diseñada para acompañar a las negociaciones oficiales del Consejo de Comercio y Tecnología (TTC) entre…
Con motivo de la escalada de tensión en las relaciones bilaterales entre España y Marruecos, y ante la previsible duración de la presente crisis, ECFR…
No hay aspiraciones colectivas sin inspiración, ni futuro sin memoria. Seguir construyendo Europa sobre relaciones de confianza es hoy más necesario que nunca.
The current context justifies the idea that the TTC should focus on technology’s global governance to counter the misuse of digital technologies by authoritarian governments
José Ignacio Torreblanca explains the importance for Europe and the US to work together to set democratic and rule-based standards within the Trade and Technology Council (Ttc) meeting, held on 15 and 16 May 2022 in Paris.
The more the process of decoupling Russia and China from the European Union and the rest of the West deepens, the more strategic Latin America will become
José Ignacio Torreblanca on the growing importance of a strategic alliance between Europe and Latin America
Without the invasion of Ukraine, they would still be aligned with Putin because the Russian narrative of delegitimizing the European Union is comfortable to them
José Ignacio Torreblanca on the impact the Russian invasion of Ukraine has had on far-right political movements across Europe
If the PP forms a regional coalition with Vox, it is going to be very difficult for Casado not to include them in a national government
José Ignacio Torreblanca on Vox’s victory in Castile-León as conservative PP falls short of majority
Gayeuropa, the derogatory term used by Russian elites and Putin to portray to their population a decadent, exhausted and, of course, unmanly Europe
José Ignacio Torreblanca writes about the moral foundations of the Russian regime
