I speak with William Chislett Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Elcano Royal Institute. William covered Spain’s transition to democracy for The Times of London between 1975 and 1978. He was then based in Mexico City for the Financial Times between 1978 and 1984. He returned to Madrid on a permanent basis in 1986 and since then, among other things, has written more than 20 books on various countries.

The Elcano Royal Institute published between 2002 and 2016 four books of his on Spain. He wrote a monthly review of Spain (Inside Spain) for the Institute between April 2004 and September 2021, and since November 2021 writes a monthly post on Spain. He has been a visiting scholar at Bilkent University, Ankara, and at New York University and has spoken at the universities of Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, Chicago, Georgetown and the London School of Economics.

See the report: ‘Fifty years after Franco: Spain’s profound transformation, 1975-2025’

Selected Publications: Spain. What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, second edition, 2025), Microhistoria de España (Espasa, 2020), A New Course for Spain: Beyond the Crisis (Elcano Royal Institute, 2016), Spain and the United States. The Quest for Mutual Rediscovery (Elcano Royal Institute, 2005), Spanish Direct Investment in Latin America: Challenges and Opportunities (Elcano Royal Institute, 2003) and The Internationalization of the Spanish Economy (Elcano Royal Institute, 2002).