Experts & Staff
José Ignacio Torreblanca

José Ignacio Torreblanca

Head, ECFR Madrid
Senior Policy Fellow

Areas of expertise

Technology and geopolitics, EU strategic autonomy; disinformation and influence operations

Languages

Spanish, English

Biography

Dr José Ignacio Torreblanca is the head of the Madrid office and senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

He holds a PhD in political science from the Complutense University of Madrid and is a senior lecturer at the National Distance Education University in Madrid where he teaches graduate and postgraduate courses on the European Union. He was a Fulbright Scholar at George Washington University in Washington DC and a postdoctoral fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.

As an expert on disinformation, he has worked with Spain’s National Security Directorate Taskforce on Disinformation Campaigns at the prime minister’s office and submitted evidence on disinformation and foreign interference in the Joint Congress-Senate National Security Committee of the Spanish parliament.

He runs a weekly column in El Mundo called “Café Steiner” and is a weekly contributor on Spanish National Public Radio. Prior to joining ECFR, Torreblanca was the editorial director of El Pais where he authored a weekly column and a blog for 10 years.

His writing on EU politics and EU foreign policy has been published widely, including a 2001 book on eastern enlargement, The Reuniting of Europe: Promises, Negotiations and Compromises, one on the EU and the 2008-2011 financial crisis, ¿Quién gobierna en Europa?: reconstruir la democracia, recuperar a la ciudadanía?, and another in 2011 on EU foreign and security policy, La fragmentación del poder europeo. He has also published on the politics of populism, including a book on the rise of Podemos party in Spain in 2015, Asaltar los cielos: Podemos o la política después de la crisis, and the rise of the Spanish far-right in 2019, ¿Ha llegado Vox para quedarse?: la sorpresa Vox.

In his latest work, he has concentrated on the geopolitics of technology, where he has led various research projects focusing on EU external digital policies, including the EU-Latin America and the Caribbean Digital Alliance. In 2020, he published a book with Carla Hobbs on Europe’s digital sovereignty, La soberanía digital de Europa, and in 2023 published a journal article on “Social networks and democracy: problems and dilemmas of regulating the digital ecosystem”.

Tomatoes and foreign policy

Europe has to make up its mind: it’s either tomatoes or immigrants

A Kosovan eye-opener

There is no way back from Kosovo’s declaration of independence – we must accept this and start helping to build a prosperous nation

Orlando’s refusal

Spain’s policy on Cuba it’s a wait-and-see attitude, and not an absurd one; but we should not use the word “policy”

Piñata capitalism

Europe should have a stronger voice when it comes to reforms in the financial system

Visible immigrants

The only relevant question about immigrants is whether or not their children will go to university

Zapatero, stay cool. And if necessary, be boring.

Interview with Jos? Ignacio Torreblanca on what to expect from the Spanish EU Presidency in times of economic crisis and institutional innovation

The European grill

Every EU presidency faces unexpected crises; now Hait? is rapidly becoming the crisis that tests both the Spanish rotating presidency and the EU’s capacity for coordinating foreign policy action

A Bush under the tree

Obama has spent the year picking up the lost balls left behind by Bush, now he’s ready to play again in 2010

EU presidency baton goes to Spain

Spain will need to put national interests aside if it is to help give the post-Lisbon Europe real influence on the world stage

World climate authority

We only have one planet. But we are managing it by outdated means: sovereignty was good at controlling feudal lords a couple of hundred years ago. Perhaps it is in the area of the climate change that the supranational EU can be a model for the rest of the world?

Publications

Articles

Glitch in the matrix: How Europeans should respond to the Trump-Musk tech agenda

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are setting out America’s new approach to digital technology—including social media and AI. The EU must understand their motivations and work with willing partners to curb negative influence in the global digital sphere

Showdown: What to expect from Spain’s general election

While Spain’s People’s Party leads the polls, obscure alliances and voter concerns leave the country’s future direction – and its impact on next year’s European Parliament elections – uncertain

Ukraine one year on: When tech companies go to war

The war in Ukraine has reinforced the strategic role of global tech giants in defence and security policy. NATO and the EU should learn from this as they try to deter future aggressors

Podcasts

Events

In the media