Ricardo Borges de Castro

Ricardo Borges de Castro is an analyst on European and global affairs and a guest columnist at Sábado, a Portuguese current affairs magazine. He is a Visiting Scholar at the College of Europe, a Senior Adviser at the European Policy Centre (EPC), an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and a Senior Fellow at Agora Strategy.

With expertise in strategic foresight, planning and policymaking, Ricardo’s research interests focus mainly on geopolitics, the EU’s international role and the future of Europe, transatlantic relations, global trends, and scenarios. Ricardo is also an experienced public speaker, moderator and facilitator.

Besides his analytical work, Ricardo is also a regular commentator and contributor on global and European affairs in several media outlets including BBC World News, France24, Euronews, YLE, L’Express, Euractiv, CNN Portugal, SIC Notícias, Público and Expresso.

Ricardo was Associate Director and Head of Europe in the World Programme at the EPC, an independent, not-for-profit, Brussels-based think tank, where he was the creator and editor of the yearly ‘EPC Outlook Paper.’ Before joining the EPC, Ricardo was foresight lead at the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), the European Commission’s in-house think tank under President Jean-Claude Juncker. Previously, Ricardo was Member of Cabinet to José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, as well as spokesperson for ‘Europe and the World’ at the Commission’s Spokespersons’ Planning and Coordination Unit. In Portugal, Ricardo served in the Prime Minister’s Office as political aide to the Prime Minister after spending four years in the Portuguese Parliament as policy advisor for foreign affairs, national defence and East Timor.

Ricardo is also a Member of the OECD Government Foresight Community, and a Member of the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transatlantic Foresight Expert Group.

Ricardo holds a Master of Arts (MALD) from The Fletcher School and a DPhil (PhD) in International Relations from the University of Oxford (St Antony’s College).

Besides Portugal, he has lived in the US, UK, Turkey, and lately in Belgium.