The Institute for Political Studies (IEP) of Universidade Católica Portuguesa will promote, from June 26 to 28, the 31st edition of the Estoril Political Forum, with the global theme "Rebuilding Democratic Consensus & Celebrating the 650th Anniversary of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance".

The International Political Studies Meeting will feature more than 100 speakers, mostly from the best international universities, mainly European and North American, such as Oxford University, Stanford and Virginia. 

"At this year's conference, which has the general theme of rebuilding the democratic consensus, we will debate such current, relevant and diverse topics as: Europe, in its past and present of unity and diversity and on its path of search for freedom; China's relations with the West; the war in Ukraine and its implications for the Western world; Brazil and its present and future challenges; the future of NATO; women and multilateralism, in a panel organised in association with the Association of Women Ambassadors; the challenges faced by liberalism and conservatism in the 21st century; and the meaning of the 650 years of the Luso-British alliance," says Rita Seabra Brito, program director of the Estoril Political Forum.

Among the many world-renowned participants are Timothy Garton Ash, who will present his most recent book Homelands: A Personal History of Europe, Norbert Lammert, former President of the Bundestag, Xiao Qiang of the University of California, Ukrainian journalist Myroslava Gongadze and Charles Moore, biographer of Margaret Thatcher. The British Ambassador in Lisbon, Christopher Sainty, and the Ambassadors of Germany, the USA, Finland, France, Poland and Ukraine will also participate in the Forum.

Prominent Portuguese personalities, such as Vítor Bento, Miguel Monjardino, Lívia Franco, Nuno Sampaio, André Azevedo Alves, Mónica Dias, Marta Santos Pais, Ana Martinho, José Ribeiro e Castro, João Pereira Coutinho, D. Duarte, Duke of Bragança and the President of Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Isabel Capeloa Gil, will also participate in the event.

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Bárbara Matias and José Limão work in Brussels, at the European Commission and at FIPRA, a European affairs consultancy. Their story with international relations begins at the Institute for Political Studies (IEP) in Lisbon. Bárbara, who did her Undergraduate Degree in Political Science and International Relations at the institute, tells us that she arrived "at the IEP when she had just turned 18", and José was a Master's student.

They met through the Institute's Alumni network and talk enthusiastically about their time there. Despite having taken different degrees, when asked what led them to choose IEP, the answer always goes through: "the advantage of having political science and international relations in the same degree". A choice that José describes as "very natural", due to the "reputation and the way the course was built."

For Bárbara, the decision was primarily due to the fact that "it was the Universidade Católica" and she admits: "when I was at IEP I started to realise what I had gotten myself into, in a good sense." Throughout her degree she discovered what she calls the "iepian network that extends to Oxford and various European universities". The alumna also highlights the institute's annual meeting, the Estoril Political Forum, which brings together "so many thinkers and so many inspiring heads...for three days of talks and discussions, which are absolutely spectacular".

As for the classes, the one that marked her most was "Tradition of the Great Books" or "TGL, as we call it among undergraduates students", says Bárbara. In this class "we talked from Plato to Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, that is, we would go through all the great thinkers" who built Democracy as we know it today.

It was entering the "IEP world", as José puts it, that increased his "passion for political science and political philosophy". Among the teachers that marked his passage through the IEP, the alumnus remembers Hugo Chelo, "but there are others, such as Professor Miguel Monjardino, Miguel Morgado, all teachers that marked me and in fact distinguished themselves for their competence and quality, of the classes and the way in which the topics were passed on to us", adds the consultant.

After completing her degree, Bárbara worked for NATO, is currently a project manager at the European Commission and is confident: "I feel that my degree offered a spectacular basis to jump to the master's degree, to start my career". The same thing happened to José. The former student says that his career, which already includes two consultancies in European affairs, "is very dependent" on the degree he took at the institute. "I know that the Master's degree at the IEP gave me the construction of the professional personality and the thinking personality," he adds.

About the Master's, José highlights: "I think it gave me fundamental bases and essentially I think it prepared me, and then it allowed me to build myself". For the consultant, the journey at the IEP "influenced a lot" and "marks the beginning of this journey in Brussels."

Applications for the Advanced Diplomacy Programme are open until 19 December. The programme, organised by the Institute for Political Studies at the Universidade Católica, which is now in its 6th edition, runs from January 3 to 31 in after-work hours.

Regarding the programme's relevance, Lívia Franco, responsible for its Scientific Coordination and professor at the Institute, explains " because more and better diplomacy is urgently needed".

It's also important to remember that 8 of the 24 candidates admitted to the 2022 External Diplomatic Career Entry Competition are PAD alumni.

For more information, email pad.iep@ucp.pt