Madrid, SPAIN 

The 23^rd annual International Conference on Economics and Security will be held at the Instituto Universitario General Gutiérrez Mellado in Madrid (Spain).

Instituto Universitario General Gutiérrez Mellado de la UNED
Calle de la Princesa 34/36 – Madrid – 28008

BUSES: Lines circular C1, C2 and lines 1, 21, 44 and 133

METRO: Ventura Rodríguez (line 3) and Argüelles (lines 3, 4 and 6.)

Introduction

The Instituto Universitario General Gutiérrez Mellado (IUGM) is a research and teaching center specialized in issues related to the search for peace, security and defense.

It was created in 1997 as an initiative of the Ministry of Defense to fill the gap of studies of this kind which had, until then, only been carried out at military centers. The Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), considering these studies to be an ideal instrument to strengthen the ties between the political, military and academic fields, accepted the challenge and contributed with its own particular system of distance learning and the incorporation of the technological progress that characterizes today’s world.

Our goals

Developing scientific research

This is the Institute’s basic objective and main activity.
Research on military, peace, security and defense issues is characterized by the confluence of the most diverse scientific and Social Sciences (Political Science, Sociology, Economy, History, Psychology, Geography, Law, Anthropology, etc.) It requires the articulation of a university structure that achieves the integration of all the approaches to these matters and that manifests the multiple dimension of the phenomenon that generates them.

Fostering post-graduate education

Research is projected on post-graduate university education with the basic purposes of encouraging the study of peace, security, defense and military affairs and of increasing the rigorousness and extension of the study of these issues.

Promoting the diffusion of scientific work

The research and the studies developed by the IUGM need to be disseminated into the scientific community. This is done both through the Institute’s own publications and through the publication services of the UNED and the Ministry of Defense, thus fomenting the spread of works of interest to both institutions.

Creating a framework for reflection and dialogue

The document “Estrategia Española de Seguridad: una responsabilidad de todos” (Spanish Security Strategy: everyone´s responsability), approved by the Council of Ministers on July 24, 2011, states that “Ensuring the security of Spain, its inhabitants and its citizens is an essential responsibility of the Government; and also of society as a whole. It is the responsibility of the National State Administration, which must lead and coordinate, of the Autonomous Communities (Regional Governments) and of the Local Authorities, as well as of citizens, social organizations, businesses and the media. Security today is everyone´s responsibility.”

Similarly, 2013 Estrategia de Seguridad Nacional (National Security Strategy), which continues and revises the strategy approved in 2011, considers National Security to be a public service that involves all the Public Administrations and requires the collaboration of society as a whole.

Along these lines, the IUGM contributes to the knowledge of reflection and research on and diffusion of issues related to security and defense, issues that are undoubtedly transcendental for working toward the peace, freedom, and prosperity of Spain. This helps to bridge the traditional gap between the University and the Armed Forces and fosters a defense awareness and, ultimately, a defense culture, objectives mentioned in the “2012 Directiva de Defensa Nacional” (National Defense Directive.)

Academic offering

The Institute organizes postgraduate courses (doctoral degree, official master’s degrees and courses created by the UNED) that offer specific training on issues of peace, security and defense to those interested in these subjects.

Doctoral degree

Doctoral program in “International Security” This program covers three broad lines of research:

• Military History and International Relations History
• Legal aspects of security and defense
• Strategy, security and defense

The purpose of the doctoral program is to research all aspects that affect external security, focusing not only on armed conflicts but on analyzing other factors such as global terrorism, organized crime, economic and financial insecurity, energy vulnerability, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, cyber threats, and irregular migratory flows. It also includes aspects that act as risk multipliers such as the dysfunctions arising from globalization, demographic imbalances, poverty and inequality, climate change, technological dangers, and radical and non-democratic ideologies. The careful examination, development, and spread of, and possible solutions to, these issues are a fundamental contribution to the development of society.

Master’s Degrees in the European Higher Education Area:

University Master’s Degree in Research on Peace, Security and Defense.

This is an official Master’s degree with 90 ECTS credits. Its objective is to prepare students to achieve sufficient theoretical, methodological, historical, political, sociological and legal knowledge to be able to develop research on and analyses of the subjects of peace, security and defense that will allow them to both contribute to the development of a culture of peace and defense and disseminate and foster research on these issues within the university. Outside the academic world this Master’s degree will help to make future political and military decisions on these subjects with a methodology and rigorousness at the level of university specialization.

University Master’s Degree in Research on the Management of Contracts and Programs in the Public Sector, with Special Application to the Area of Defense.

This is an official Master’s degree with 70 ECTS credits. Its purpose is to arise students awareness of the systems of acquisitions and public concessions, of budgeting and control oriented toward the integrated management of large projects, management techniques applicable to the life cycle of systems and programs that will develop skills in aspects related to the planning, analysis and control of projects and bids in order to be able to implement systems of price and cost controls.

Specialist and expert courses

The purpose of specialist and expert courses is to contribute to the development of knowledge about relevant strategic issues and to promote the study of and deliberation on international security, especifically regarding strategic European, Mediterranean, and Latin-American issues, with the academic support that is the result of the selection of the professors and the university accreditation provided by a specific degree of this kind.

Other activities

The IUGM also promotes and organizes debates, seminars, conferences, colloquia and meetings that stimulate and facilitate relations between theoretical reflection and the specific problems arising from military affairs and issues of peace, security and defense.

Professors

Due to the highly specialized nature of the subjects, professors of the IUGM have been chosen among the greatest specialists on the issues of peace, security and defense from the teaching staff of the different faculties of the UNED and of other Spanish universities. Thus, the Institute has been able to gather an excellent staff of professors in its short life, a staff whose dedication, enthusiasm for the Institute’s goals and faithfulness to this center are, without a doubt, our best asset.

Methodology

The IUGM uses the specific methodology of the UNED based on the principles of distance learning and focused on the needs of the student. UNED is leader in the implementation of cutting-edge technologies applied to learning, with the largest offer of virtual courses in Spain, and has invested heavily in technology to ensure students a whole range of services over the Internet, ranging from orientation prior to registration, online registration, access to virtual welcome communities for new students, courses preparing students for distance learning, virtual courses in each subject with learning activities and materials, etc.

Visiting fellowship

The Institute welcomes students and researchers from other national and international universities and research centers.

Students from foreign educational systems

Students with degrees from foreign educational systems who wish to enter the official Master and/or Doctoral degrees, regardless of the educational system, must request the acceptance of their foreign degree and the authorization to enter the official Masters and/or Doctoral degrees from the Rector of the UNED.

Library

The IUGM has a library that is fully coordinated with the rest of libraries of the UNED, allowing its users to access all the resources, collections and services. The library’s main objective is to support the Institute’s teaching and research and to cover post-graduate students’ information and research needs.

The collections are specialized in the subjects of peace, security, defense and international cooperation and include over 8,500 items. There are also 126 periodicals, some of them with online access available, both internally using the UNED network computers and from the outside.