Practitioner seminar series | Foreign Policy Making at the Prime Minister's Office
Carles Casajuana (Private Consultant for Foreign Investment in Spain)
Registration is required
During the course of the academic year 2024/25 IBEI hosts a series of lectures by practitioners in the field of international relations and development.
The practitioner seminar series is intended to give IBEI students and attendees an opportunity to engage with international professionals about their personal work experience, the organizations they represent, and to learn about possible career trajectories in international governmental and non-governmental organizations. Each lecture will allow ample room for questions and inputs from the audience.
Use the hashtag #IBEIpracSeminars to share and comment on the social networks.
Foreign Policy Making at the Prime Minister's Office
The purpose of this seminar is to examine the growing foreign policy role of Prime Ministers and their advisors and how prime ministers and heads of government interact with each other and with their foreign policy advisors, what is the role of these advisors and how they do their work. In the European arena, European matters are no longer considered foreign affairs: they are dealt with by prime ministers or by economy ministers, agriculture ministers, trade ministers, etc. Most key decisions are made at prime minister’s level at the European Council without the direct involvement of Foreign Affairs ministers. Besides, European prime ministers meet with their non-European peers with an increasing frequency, either in bilateral meetings or in multilateral gatherings such as G-20, NATO, Latin American summits, etc. These meetings are prepared by prime ministers’ advisors, who act as Sherpas and who also prepare the prime ministers’ foreign policy speeches and their press conferences. This gives both prime ministers and their advisors an increasing role in the definition and execution of their countries’ foreign policy.
Carles Casajuana was born in Sant Cugat del Vallès in 1954. Degree in Economics and Law from the University of Barcelona. He joined the diplomatic service in 1980. Secretary of the Embassy of Spain in Bolivia (1980-1982) and the Philippines (1982-84). Between 1984 and 1987 he was Director of Technical Development Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1984-87). Counselor of the Permanent Mission of Spain to the United Nations in New York (1987-91). Chief of Staff of the Secretary General for Foreign Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1991-96). Ambassador of Spain to Malaysia (1996-2001). Ambassador Representative to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union (2001-2004). From 2004 to 2008, he was the Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to the Spanish President. From 2008-2012, Ambassador of Spain in the United Kingdom. Since 2012 works as a private consultant for foreign investment in Spain. He is a member of the board of the NGO “Alianza por la Solidaridad”. He is a writer and a regular contributor to La Vanguardia.