The director of NOREF since January 2009, Mariano Aguirre is a political analyst on international politics, peace and security, with particular expertise in the areas of the Middle East, U.S. foreign policy and emerging powers. He has written, co-authored and edited several books published in the UK, the U.S., Spain, Portugal and Italy. His most recent contribution is a chapter in Megacities: The Politics of Urban Exclusion and Violence in the Global South, edited by Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt (Zed Books, 2009).
He is a guest professor of post-graduate studies in the University of Deusto (Bilbao) and the Autonomous University of Lisbon, and in the masters on international development programme of the Fundación Ortega y Gasset (Madrid) and at the School of Culture of Peace (Autonomous University of Barcelona). He is a regular contributor to El País, Le Monde diplomatique, La Vanguardia, OpenDemocracy, Radio Nederlands, Radio France and other international media.
He holds an MPhil in Peace and Conflict Studies from Trinity College, Dublin and was head of the Peace and Security Programme at FRIDE (Madrid) and programme officer of the Ford Foundation in New York.