Dr Clara PORTELA holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence (Italy) and an MA from the Free University of Berlin (Germany). She is currently a full-time faculty member at the University of Valencia (Spain), having previously served in a similar role at Singapore Management University (Singapore), and as a Senior Associate Analyst at the EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) in Paris (France). Clara Portela is also a Visiting Professor at OSCE Academy in Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic).

Her research deals with international sanctions and with European foreign policy, with a focus on arms control, nuclear proliferation, and EU-Asia relations. She is the author of the monograph ‘European Union Sanctions and Foreign Policy’ (2010), for which she received the THESEUS Award for Promising Research on European Integration. She has participated in consultative processes convened by the United Nations, the European Parliament, the European External Action Service, the European Commission, the UK House of Lords and House of Commons, the Parliament of Canada, and the Asia-Europe Meeting. Clara Portela has held visiting professorships at the College of Europe, the University of Innsbruck and at Monash University in Australia, among others.