Ricardo Borges de Castro

Dr Ricardo Borges de Castro is a Brussels-based analyst on European and global affairs with over twenty-five years of experience in international relations, policymaking and foresight. A guest columnist at Sábado, a Portuguese current affairs magazine, he is also a Senior Adviser at the European Policy Centre (EPC), an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), and a Senior Fellow at Agora Strategy.

Ricardo is an experienced keynote speaker, lecturer, moderator and facilitator, as well as a regular commentator and contributor on global and European affairs in several media outlets including BBC World News, France24, Euronews, YLE, L’Express, Euractiv, Kathimerini, CNN Portugal, SIC Notícias, Público and Expresso.

With expertise in strategic foresight, planning and policymaking, Ricardo’s research interests focus mainly on geopolitics, the EU’s international role and the future of Europe, transatlantic relations, global trends, and scenarios.

Ricardo was a Visiting Scholar at the College of Europe from April to December 2024. Before that, he was an Associate Director and Head of Europe in the World Programme at the EPC, Brussels-based think tank, where he was the founding editor of the yearly ‘EPC Outlook Paper.’ Before joining the EPC, Ricardo was foresight lead at the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), the European Commission’s in-house think tank under President Jean-Claude Juncker. Previously, Ricardo was Member of Cabinet of José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. In Portugal, he held advisory roles in the Prime-Minister’s office and in the Portuguese Parliament.

Ricardo holds a Master of Arts (MALD) from The Fletcher School and a DPhil (PhD) in International Relations from the University of Oxford (St Antony’s College).

He enjoys running and the outdoors. He posts on X @ricbdc and Bluesky