September 2026 – Research and Projects

On Friday, 11 September, the Euro-Arab Foundation welcomed to its headquarters an Uzbek delegation led by Muzaffar Kamilov, Adviser to the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Religious and Educational Affairs and Rector of the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan. He was accompanied by the Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Spain, as well as the Deputy Chairman of the State Security Service of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Chairman of the Committee on Religious Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Project Manager of the EU–UN Global Terrorism Threats Facility of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), and the Officer-in-Charge of the Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Section of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT).

The visit to the Euro-Arab Foundation is one of three study visits scheduled by the delegation in Europe, following earlier visits to Sweden and Belgium, and was carried out as part of UNOCT’s ongoing support to the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan in developing the institutional concept and operating model for a specialised Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) Centre within the Academy. The Euro-Arab Foundation operates as an academic and intercultural research platform, making its experience particularly relevant for exploring how research is translated into practical prevention, education, strategic communications and community engagement, with a view to identifying approaches that may be relevant and adaptable to the context of Uzbekistan.

During the visit, the delegation met with the Executive Secretary of the Euro-Arab Foundation, Antonio Sánchez, who showed them the facilities and explained the work of the institution; with Isabel Pérez, Communications Director of the Euro-Arab Foundation, who detailed the Foundation’s active participation in the European Commission’s EU Knowledge Hub project, where they lead the Communications and Strategic Communications portfolios; and with José María González, Deputy Director of Projects at the Foundation, who elaborated on the institution’s areas of research specialisation. The meeting also included José Luis Salido, Project Coordinator, and Rascha Albaba, Researcher, both involved in projects on the protection of places of worship and combating hate speech.

The exchange covered eight thematic areas: the Foundation’s academic and applied institutional model, its positioning and comparative advantage between academia, policy and practice; the priorities, methods and quality of research on radicalization and violent extremism; the translation of findings into policies, programmes and prevention tools; strategic communications and the design of evidence-based prevention narratives; education and training for students, educators and practitioners; intercultural and interreligious dialogue and the strengthening of community resilience; the integration of human rights, gender equality and ethical safeguards; and, finally, partnerships, international cooperation and the institutional and financial sustainability of research and prevention work, with a view to possible future exchange between the Foundation and the Academy.

The Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies took part in the XVIII Congress of the Spanish Association of Political Science and Administration (AECPA), held on September 9 and 10, 2026, through the participation of three members of its team, who each presented papers within different Working Groups of the congress.

José María González Riera, Deputy Director of Research and Projects at the Euro-Arab Foundation, presented the paper “Judicial Reform in Morocco: Constitutionalization of the IER’s Recommendations and Legislative Development” on Wednesday, September 9. The paper analyses the constitutional reform mandate set out in Morocco’s 2011 Constitution, inspired by the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER), and examines the subsequent process of constitutionalization and legislative development of judicial reform, assessing the actual degree to which those recommendations have been incorporated into the Moroccan legal system. The paper was presented within Working Group 11, “Legislative Transformations, Civil Society, and Authoritarianism in the Post-Arab Spring Maghreb.”

José Luis Salido Medina, Projects Coordinator at the Euro-Arab Foundation, presented on Thursday, September 10 the paper “The Spanish Far Right: Analysis Through a Proposed Conceptual Framework,” part of Working Group 6, “The Far Right of the 21st Century: The Genesis of National Populism and the Rise of the Populist Radical Right.” The study proposes an original analytical framework for ideologically classifying the different actors of the Spanish far right, from its most extreme expressions to its radical ones, based on an examination of political platforms, audiovisual content, and parties’ official websites.

Javier Montilla, a researcher at the Euro-Arab Foundation, also presented on Thursday, September 10 the paper “Informational Interference in the Contemporary International System: State of the Art and Analytical Challenges,” in Working Group 4, “World Disorder: New Threats and the Proliferation of Disruptive Actors.” The paper offers a critical review of the strategic use of disinformation as a tool of foreign interference, drawing on analytical frameworks such as hybrid operations, influence operations, and the concept of foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), with the aim of identifying conceptual gaps and proposing analytical challenges for its study from the field of International Relations.