Second Roundtable of the “Geopolitics, Leadership and Values” Aspen Public Lecture

Aspen Institute España will host, in collaboration with the Deusto University, the first edition of the “Geopolitics, Leadership and Values” Aspen Program in Bilbao, Spain. The program consists of a seminar and a public lecture on February 19. The first roundtable will be about “The New DNA of the European Integration: Democracy and Security”. The complete schedule of the event is available here.

6:20 to 7:35 pm – Second Roundtable: The New DNA of the European Integration: Democracy and Security

Sonia Alonso, Associate Professor of the Social Sciences and Humanities Department at the University of Deusto
Justin Gest, Professor of Policy and Government at George Mason University and Aspen España Fellow
Ignacio Urquizu, Associate Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, externo consultant for Metroscopia and Aspen España Fellow

Moderated by: Pablo García-Berdoy, European Public Affairs Lead at LLYC and Member of the Aspen Institute España Board of Trustees

Sonia Alonso

Sonia Alonso is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at the University of Deusto. She completed her doctoral studies at the CEACS of the Juan March Institute for Studies and Research, receiving a PhD in Political Science from the Autonomous University of Madrid in 1998. Between 1998 and 2004, she taught and conducted research at the universities of Salamanca, Carlos III of Madrid, Oxford (St Antony’s College), and London (Royal Holloway College). From 2004 to 2014, she was a researcher at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB). From then until January 2023, she served as an Associate Professor at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q). Sonia Alonso’s research focuses on democratization, political decentralization, electoral competition, nationalist conflict, and political attitudes in Europe from a comparative perspective. She is the author of two books, co-editor of two volumes, and has published numerous articles in high-impact academic journals such as Party Politics, European Journal of Political Research, Southern European Society and Politics, Comparative European Politics, Regional and Federal Studies, REIS, RECP, and REP. She currently coordinates the research focus Plural and Inclusive Democracies at the University of Deusto.

Justin Gest

Justin Gest is an Aspen Fellow at Aspen Institute España and Professor of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the award-winning author of seven books on immigration, democracy, and demographic change, including Democratic Drain: Global Migration and the Struggle for Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2026). He has published a wide variety of peer-reviewed articles and co-edits the Oxford University Press book series, “Oxford Studies in Migration and Citizenship.” A former columnist for CNN and Newsweek, he has also published his reporting or commentary with a variety of other publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic.

Ignacio Urquizu

Ignacio Urquizu holds a European PhD in Sociology from the Complutense University of Madrid and a PhD in Social Science at the Juan March Institute. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University (Boston, USA) and a visiting researcher at the European University Institute (Florence, Italy) and the University of Essex (United Kingdom). He has taught at the University of Essex, George Washington University (Madrid Center), the Open University of Catalonia, Pablo de Olavide University, and the Complutense University of Madrid, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology. He has also collaborated with the Alternativas Foundation, where he served as Deputy Director of “Estudios de Progreso,” and was part of the Next Left group at the Foundation for European Progressive Studies, whose aim was to develop new proposals for social democracy at the European level. Between 2014 and 2015, he coordinated Metroscopia’s political analysis seminar.

His research focuses on the functioning of democracies, examining the relationship between economics and politics and the ideological evolution of socialist parties. He has paid special attention to the political behavior of Spaniards, studying recent electoral cycles. His work has been published in both national and international journals. He is the author of more than twenty academic articles and book chapters. He also directs a book series on social democracy at La Catarata publishing house, where he published La crisis de la socialdemocracia: ¿Qué crisis? (2012, Catarata). His most recent books include Otra política es posible (2022, Debate), ¿Cómo somos? Un retrato robot de la gente corriente (2019, Deusto), and La crisis de representación en España (2016, Catarata). He has collaborated with CNN+ and Público, and currently contributes to La Sexta (Al Rojo Vivo, La Roca), El País, Onda Cero (Más de Uno), and Eldiario.es (Piedras de Papel).

In May 2015, he decided to enter politics. He was elected as a PSOE deputy to the Parliament of Aragón. In September, following the resignation of the Socialist senator for Teruel, he became a member of the Spanish Senate. On December 20th, 2015, he was elected as a PSOE member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies for the province of Teruel, a seat he retained in the June 26th, 2016 election. He served as mayor of Alcañiz (Teruel) from 2019 to 2023. Between 2019 and 2025, he was a PSOE deputy in the Parliament of Aragón, where he served as his parliamentary group’s spokesperson on education.

He is currently an Associate Professor of Applied Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid and an external collaborator of Metroscopia.

Pablo García-Berdoy