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 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 economic reasons.]
History
The think tank was founded by Diego Hidalgo in 1999.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 global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy. It consists ...
, 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
ODI (formerly the 'Overseas Development Institute') is a global affairs think tank, founded in 1960. Its mission is "to inspire people to act on injustice and inequality through collaborative research and ideas that matter for people and the p ...
.
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 (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
.Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
think tank among 75 institutions.[
FRIDE was closed down in December 2015.][
]
Objectives and fields of study
The stated objective of the FRIDE was to expand the ideas on Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
'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.
Definitions
Multilateralism, in the form of membership in international institutions, serves to bind powerful nations, discourage u ...
, democratic values, security and sustainable development
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...
.[ It was an international development think tank.][ Its major study fields includes democracy, emerging powers, development cooperation, ]global governance
Global governance refers to institutions that coordinate the behavior of transnational actors, facilitate cooperation, resolve disputes, and alleviate collective action problems. Global governance broadly entails making, monitoring, and enfor ...
, fragile states and energy security.[ In addition, it focused on peace and security, human rights, democracy promotion, and development and humanitarian aid.]Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
.[
]
Organizational structure
The organization had a president, a director and a deputy director.Pedro Solbes
Pedro Solbes Mira (born 31 August 1942 in Pinoso, Alicante) is a Spanish economist. He was the president of FRIDE, Madrid-based think tank.
Career
While independent in the sense of not affiliated to any party, his various ministerial roles in ...
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][ 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 known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
.[ 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, the EU funding was just 0.68% of its revenues which was ]€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...
2.47 million.[ The Madrid regional government was one of the contributors of the FRIDE since 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