-          Born on 1944 in Porto (P)

-          Political science graduate from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

-          Co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon (1981–2007)

-          Special adviser to the Portuguese Defence Minister, Fernando Nogueira (1993–1995)

-          Special adviser to the Portuguese Minister for Internal Administration, António Figueiredo Lopes (2002–2004)

-          Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) (2007–2012)

-          Coordinator of the Steering Committee of the Global Governance Group (GG10) (since 2012)

-          Associate Senior Researcher and Project Director at the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) (since 2013)