The Alumni of IBEI Association (ALIBEI) in cooperation with the Consulate General of the United States of America was pleased to host the very first Discussion Forum of the 2009-2010 ALIBEI Event Series. The event took place on March 11th and was entitled "The renovation of North-American Politics: From the Bush Era to the Obama Era". The keynote speaker was Dr.. Alan Abramowitz, professor of Political Science at Emory University and leading expert on US Politics, with commentary from Dr. Jordi Vaquer, Director of the CIDOB Foundation and the participation of a panel of IBEI alumni and current scholars. The discussion and public debate focused on transformations in US domestic policy since the Bush administration, and the emerging new approaches to US foreign policy and multilateralism of the Obama administration. 

The next ALIBEI Discussion Forum will focus on International Development and Cooperation and will take place in early June of 2009. Event highlights and the ALIBEI Activities Calendar can be found on our website: http://www.ibei.org/alibei

Xavier Fernández i Marín is "Juan de la Cierva" researcher at Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals since may 2009. He has recently received his PhD at the Political and Social Sciences department of Universitat Pompeu Fabra with the dissertation "Technology and Public Policy: An evaluation of Internet and e-Government policies in Spain". He is also a postgraduate in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection by the University of Essex (United Kingdom).