A changing landscape

Giovanni Grevi tells Toby Vogel how things have developed in the world of foreign affairs think-tanks.

Last autumn, Giovanni Grevi returned to Brussels – after five years in Paris – to open an office for Fride, a foreign-affairs think-tank based in Madrid. Grevi had worked for the European Policy Centre (EPC), a think-tank based in Brussels, from 1999 to 2005, and found the policy research scene in Brussels much changed. 

“The market-place of ideas is a lot more crowded than a decade ago,” he says. “There are more actors and they are more diverse, and there is a larger transatlantic presence. Being in Brussels allows think-tanks based in the member states to enhance their visibility and be part of a pretty dynamic policy community.”

After completing a master’s degree in European studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Grevi began his Brussels career in 1998 with an internship in the Forward Studies Unit, as it was called then – the European Commission’s in-house think-tank (and precursor of today’s Bureau of European Policy Advisors).

From there he went straight to his first job, as a policy analyst at the EPC, where he became associate director of studies in 2002. In 2005, he left for the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), a foreign and defence policy think-tank based in Paris, and the following year was awarded a doctorate in international relations, with a focus on EU foreign policy, from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

The EUISS is a unique outfit – a think-tank attached to the EU’s Council of Ministers, but not physically close to any of the EU institutions.

It offers the best of both worlds, Grevi says: institutional proximity, and access, to the EU, but physical distance from the ultimately small world of decision-makers in EU foreign and security policy.

“Being away from Brussels for five years while working on EU matters put the evolution of the EU a bit in perspective. Taking a step back from Brussels helps.”

Fride, Grevi’s current employer, also brings with it a certain distance to EU affairs. Grevi, who is Italian, describes it as a “think-tank on foreign policy with strong roots in Spain and an equally strong projection on Europe and beyond”.

Values

Fride – the Foundation for International Relations and External Dialogue – assesses the EU’s policies against the values they are supposed to uphold, such as human rights, democracy and a commitment to multilateral action.

“The nature of the game is to try to anticipate the agenda, contribute to shaping it and scrutinise the practice of policymaking and implementation,” says Grevi.

Fride has critically followed the EU’s democratisation agenda, for example, with a rare degree of consistency over the years. It also focused on the EU’s southern neighbourhood long before that was fashionable. Indeed, regions that many an EU official will view as somewhat marginal to the EU’s interests – Latin America and especially Brazil, but also central Asia – are firmly in Fride’s field of vision.

Running an office – albeit a small one, with three permanent staff – is a new task for Grevi, but not one that appears to be a burden. The same applies to fundraising, which many policy-wonks do grudgingly.

For Grevi, by contrast, fundraising “is not intellectually detached from our core business”.

He says: “In fact, it can be a useful challenge in terms of sharpening ideas, finding new angles and so on while doing what is of utmost importance – preserving intellectual independence.”