ANDRES DE
CASTRO GARCIA

Associate Professor of International Relations and Security Studies in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) since 2020. His research interests are: International Relations Theory (mainly Realism), Security Studies, Catholic IR theory, intelligence and MENA and the Sahel (specially GAR-SI) in addition to border security. Dr. De Castro holds a PhD in International Security (summa cum laude) and a Master’s degree in Peace, Security, and Defense from IUGM-UNED (Spanish Ministry of Defense-UNED), as well as a Law degree from the University of Salamanca. He also completed the National Defense Course at the Spanish Center for Higher National Defense Studies (CESEDEN). His academic career began in Bolivia (2012) and continued it in Chile (2012–2016), initially as a researcher at the National Academy of Political and Strategic Studies (ANEPE)—part of the Chilean Ministry of National Defense—and subsequently as an associate professor at the same institution. He was later given a position in Ecuador (2016–2017) before continuing his academic career in Iraq (2017–2020) as an associate professor. There, he served as the Head of two Departments of Political Science and International Relations. Since 2012, he has been a visiting professor and/or researcher at New York University, Georgetown University, the Naval Postgraduate School (California), the University of Western Ontario (Canada), the Escola Superior de Guerra of Brazil, Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania), and Mathias Corvinus Collegium (Hungary). Assoc. Prof. De Castro has supervised eighteen doctoral theses—two of which received special distinction awards—as well as numerous master's and BA theses at various universities. He has served on twenty doctoral thesis examination committees at prestigious institutions across several countries. He possesses extensive experience in academic management, having been the Head two Departments, a doctoral program, and two master's programs, and having served as the academic secretary (vice director) for two doctoral programs. Additionally, he has directed three courses of "formación permanente". From 2022 to 2024, he served as the Academic Deputy Director of the General Gutiérrez Mellado University Institute (IUGM) and as coordinator of the IUGM-UNED Master’s Program in Peace, Security, and Defense. Dr. De Castro has led various research projects at and/or for the National Academy of Strategic Political Studies (Chile), the Universidad Técnica del Norte (Ecuador), the National Distance Education University (UNED), and the University of Guardia Civil (CUGC). Additionally, he has the director of two projects for the Ministry of Justice and Security (JenV) of the Government of the Netherlands. He is currently a researcher on the DeSur project, funded by the Spanish Government´s AEI (2025–2028). He has authored over one hundred scientific publications—twenty of which are indexed in JCR and/or SCOPUS in journals such as European Security, Intelligence and National Security, Policing, International Critical Thought, Security Journal, African Identities and International Journal of Intelligence and Counter Intelligence, resulting in the recognition of a successful six-year research period (2014–2020).