Manuel Muñiz is the Provost of IE University in Madrid and a Professor of Practice of International Relations. As Provost he is a key contributor to the strategic development of IE a higher education institution with over 10,000 students, an extensive faculty and an alumni body of over 70,000. He is also the Chair of the Board of Trustees of IE New York College, a higher education institution located in Manhattan.
Dr. Muñiz served as Dean of IE’s School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs (SPEGA) from 2017 to 2024. From June of 2023 to January of 2025 Dr. Muñiz served as President of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA), the preeminent organization bringing together the world’s top schools of global affairs and public policy. Since 2023 he has been a Senior Nonresident Fellow at Brookings’ Foreign Policy Program.
From 2020 to 2021 Dr. Muñiz was State Secretary (Vice Minister) at the Spanish Foreign Ministry. In this capacity he led the Strategy and Foresight unit at the Ministry as well as the Economic Diplomacy team, and the Communications department, including the Office for Diplomatic Information. During this time, he coordinated the crafting of Spain’s 2021-2024 Foreign Action Strategy, and led the work on the National Strategy on Technology and Global Order, a document aimed at launching Spain’s Technology Diplomacy. While in office he also coordinated Spain’s OECD Ministerial Presidency of 2020 and was a member of the Prime Minister’s Covid19 task force.
From 2015 to 2017 Dr. Muñiz was the Director of the Program on Transatlantic Relations at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. And from 2017 to 2020 he was a Senior Associate at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, as well as one of the promoters of its Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship.
Dr. Muñiz’s academic work has focused on the impact of technology on social and economic trends. He has studied the drivers behind the rise of populism and its effects on global affairs. He has written extensively about the fracturing of the social contract in western countries and the rise of anti-elite and anti-democratic sentiment in the Western world.
Dr. Muniz holds a JD (Law) from the Complutense University in Madrid, an MSc in Financial Markets from the IEB, a Master’s in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a DPhil (PhD) in International Relations from the University of Oxford. He has also completed Yale University’s Global Executive Leadership Program (YGELP).
He is a Permanent Member of the Royal European Academy of Doctors, a member of the Advisory Committee of Club of Madrid, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ortega-Marañón Foundation and a council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Lastly, Dr. Muñiz is a recipient of a number of awards and recognitions including the Grand Cross of Spain’s Order of Merit, the Trilateral Commission’s David Rockefeller Fellowship, the Atlantic Council’s Millennium Fellowship, and the Eisenhower Fellowship. In 2016 he was recognized by Esglobal as one of the 25 intellectuals having the greatest impact on our thinking about Iberoamérica.
Selection of articles:
- “Der Einfluss der USA und Europas in Lateinamerika schwindet” (The influence of the USA and Europe in Latin America is waning), Handelsblatt, September 2023 (link);
- “AI, Democracy, and the Global Order”, Project Syndicate, with Samir Saran, May 2023 (link);
- “Perspectives Transatlantiques sur un Ordre Mondial Fracturé”, (The Fracturing of the Global Order – Transatlantic Perspective), Politique Étrangère, March 2023 (link);
- “Education for a more Equitable Society”, IE Insights, September 2022 (link);
- “Gobernemos la Tecnología para Reforzar la Democracia”, (Governing Technology to Strengthen Democracy), ABC, June 2022 (link);
- “Un Nuevo Orden Internacional”, (A New Global Order), El Mundo, March 2022 (link);
- “Technology and the Global Struggle for Democracy”, Project Syndicate, January 2022 (link);
- “Diplomacia Económica para un Nuevo Contrato Social,” (Economic Diplomacy for a New Social Contract), El País, July 2020 (link);
- “A New Social Contract for the Digital Age”, in Work in the Age of Data, BBVA Open Mind, Turner, pp. 106-118, 2019 (link);
- “The Coming Technological Cold War,” Project Syndicate, April 2019 (link);
- “El Retorno de la Historia” (The Return of History), ABC, October 2018 (link);
- “Domestic Enemies and the Collapse of the Transatlantic Order,” Atlantic Community, May 2018 (link);
- “Le Triangle de Distribution Emplois – Productivité – Revenu ne Fonctionne Plus,” (The Distribution Triangle of Employment – Productivity – Income Does not Work Any More), Le Monde, November 2017 (link);
- “Economic Growth is No Longer Enough,” Project Syndicate, November 2017 (link).
Selection of video interviews with relevant figures:
- Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, February 2023 (link);
- Raja Mohan, Senior Fellow, Asia Society, December 2022 (link);
- Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for a Europe fit for the Digital Age, December 2022 (link);
- Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, interviewed by Manuel Muñiz, Provost at IE University, July 2022 (link);
- Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary General of the United Nations, interviewed by Manuel Muñiz, Provost at IE University, June 2022 (link);
