Activity Axes

Historically, our activity has developed in 4 main areas:

Web and Publications

IGADI was born at the end of the Cold War and the explosion of the Information Society. Thus, since 1994, IGADI has had its own website for monitoring and analysing our main thematic and geographical lines of research, collaborating with institutions, the media, companies, NGOs…

In addition, our physical publications promoted a theoretical framework in Galician for international relations as a discipline, specifically around Galician paradiplomacy. Tempo Exterior stands out as IGADI’s academic and biannual journal. Created in 1997 and re-founded in 2000, Tempo Exterior has a large Editorial and Scientific Board, linked to Galician and international universities. We also publish our annual reports, the IGADI Annual Report and Nós No Mundo, as well as the collection of monographs (International Textures) Texturas Internacionais and a series of extraordinary publications.

Analysis and Research

We have the following historic research lines:

  • 1. Geopolitics, Security, Conflicts and Pacification
  • 2. International Cooperation and Agenda 2030
  • 3. Paradiplomacy
  • 4. European Unión
  • 5. Economy
  • 6. Observatoryof Chinese Politics (OPCh)
  • 7. Galician Observatory of Lusophony (OGALUS)
  • 8. Diasporas Observatory

These lines allowed us to consolidate IGADI as a consistent and original space in the European context concerning its nature as a think tank and association of international studies. 

At the same time, the geographic specialisation in the Chinese and Asian world, the Portuguese-speaking world and Latin America have created a pluralistic knowledge community with highly diversified capacities and potential for projection on five continents.

The analyses provided by IGADI aim to play a useful role in decision-making and represent an internationally recognised level of specialisation in preferred research topics. To this end, it pays special attention to the interaction with the academic and university world and beyond, participating and associating itself with institutions, companies, cultural and international cooperation agents…

Projects and Management: IGADI’s Matryoshka Dolls

IGADI’s history is characterised by the use of its capacities as a knowledge community to promote specific projects and initiatives, on different scales, in line with its founding objectives. We highlight some initiatives promoted in these 30 years:

IGADI promoted the creation of the Galician Fund for Cooperation and Solidarity (1997). This association counts with the participation of more than one hundred Galician local administrations, which share their development cooperation actions. Since 2020, IGADI has ceased to exercise its secretariat, while maintaining a permanent line of collaboration.

The creation and promotion of the Plácido Castro Foundation (2001), with the participation of the city councils of Cambados, Corcubión and Vilagarcía de Arousa, as well as the Galician Association of Translation and Interpreting Professionals (AGPTI), serves to vindicate the work and thought of a singular figure of historical Galicianism. The Foundation organises an Annual Conference and a Translation Prize, among other activities.

The Observatory of Chinese Politics, OPCh (2005), is a project promoted by IGADI and supported by Casa Asia. Its objective is to permanently monitor political developments in the Chinese world, paying attention to its political and legal system, foreign policy, Taiwan, minority nationalities, human rights, and security and defence. IGADI also promotes and manages the Ibero-American Network of Sinology (RIBSI, Red Iberoamericana de Sinoloxía) in which more than twenty specialists from a dozen countries participate. The OPCh publishes the Annual Report on China Policy and organises the International Electronic Symposium on China Policy.

The Galician Observatory of Lusophones, OGALUS (2009), emphasizes the language by promoting the analytical monitoring of the general current affairs of Lusophone countries, generating proposals for raising awareness and boosting Galician-Lusophone cooperation at all levels.

Also initiatives other initiatives are part of the IGADI’s history, such as the Bilateral Forums promoted by the Latin American countries of the Galician diaspora and initiators in the economic diplomacy of the Autonomy; the ORBALIA Network, formed by journalists interested in international information (in collaboration with the Professional Association of Journalists of Galicia); the Arredalia Network, formed by dozens of people who did internships at IGADI, or specific projects such as the gatherings The World From Here (O Mundo Desde Aquí) or the Expanded Cooperation project.

Documentation and public diplomacy

The Centre for Contemporary International Information and Documentation (CIDIC, Centro de Información e Documentación Internacional Contemporánea) is the only one of its kind in Galicia. It has a newspaper library specialising in international relations, as well as a specialised historical archive on the internationalisation of Galicia. CIDIC is currently located in the City Council of Pontevedra, in the Centro Cívico Sur.

From its position as a specialised and historical centre in the development of official Galician foreign action, the IGADI carries out a special, systematic and committed monitoring of official public policies for Galician foreign action.