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. Hidalgo is also the founder of another think tank, Club of Rome, 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 ...

. In the same ranking, it was the 23rd

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 subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

'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 ...

, democratic values, security and sustainable development. It was an international development think tank. Its major study fields includes democracy, emerging powers, development cooperation, global governance, 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 ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

Organizational structure

The organization had a president, a director and a deputy director. as well as 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 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 of ...

. 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 € 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