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Security and Defense

 Silhouette de drone militaire sur fond coucher de soleil.

The relative simplicity of the Cold War has given way to a series of crises and conflicts involving heterogeneous actors and unpredictable situations. Today, security studies require an integrated approach that takes into account both regional and global dimensions, as well as political trends (coalitions, pressure from the media, strategic rivalries and limited wars) and military dynamics (nuclear and conventional capabilities, reduced force structures, types and methods of intervention).

Since the 1990s, Ifri’s Security Studies Center has stimulated debate and contributed to the improvement of strategic thinking in France through its conferences and widely read publications (in French and English). The Center also works on behalf of public and private policymakers through briefs and closed-door seminars.

Ifri's Security Studies Center analyzes traditional defense issues as well as the evolution of the broader field of security. The Center’s programs are designed to be enduring and cross disciplinary, and are conducted with the help of other Ifri research units. Through its innovative work, the Center has two objectives: influencing a wide public with its publications – in particular its two electronic paper series “Focus stratégique” and “Proliferation Papers” – and making recommendations to all the actors involved in public security. Accordingly, various reports and projects are realized on behalf of the Ministries of Defense, the Interior and Foreign Affairs.

Elie TENENBAUM

Research Fellow, Director of Ifri's Security Studies Center

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Jérémy BACHELIER

Military Fellow, Security Studies Center

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Laure DE ROCHEGONDE

Research Fellow, Security Studies Center

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Héloïse FAYET

Research Fellow, Security Studies Center

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Amélie FEREY

Research Fellow, Coordinator of the Defense Research Unit - LRD, Security Studies Center

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Léo PÉRIA-PEIGNÉ

Research Fellow, Security Studies Center

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Marc HECKER

Director of Research and Communications, Editor-in-Chief of Politique étrangère, and research fellow at the Security Studies Center

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Pierre NÉRON-BANCEL

Military fellow within the Defense Research Unit of IfriI’s Center for Security Studies.

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Alice PANNIER

Research Fellow, Head of Ifri's Geopolitics of Technology Program 

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Guillaume GARNIER

Associate Research Fellow, Security Studies Center

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Jean-Louis LOZIER

Advisor, Security Studies Center

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Jean-Christophe NOËL

Associate Research Fellow, Security Studies Center

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Luc PAGÈS

Conseiller, Centre des études de sécurité


 

Le lancement d'un missile balistique depuis l'eau
The prospect of completely eliminating nuclear weapons seems distant. In sharp contrast with the pragmatic ambitions outlined by Barack Obama in his 2009 speech in Prague, and even more so with the hopes brought about by the fall of the Berlin Wall, nuclear weapons should no longer be perceived...
Ansongo, Mali - December 2015 : Daily life of french soldiers of barkhane military operation in Mali (Africa) launch in 2013 against terrorism in the area.
Western armies today face a triple challenge. First, they have been involved in “wars amongst populations” for twenty-five years, having to cope with failed states, fractured societies, and irregular adversaries. Counterinsurgency (COIN) may be out of fashion, but stabilization operations remain...
satellite réaliste en orbite terrestre basse. Rendu 3D
The Observatory on Future Conflicts is a multiannual frame contract run by the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri) and Geo4i under the supervision of the three armed services headquarters (Air Force,...
L'Europe la nuit vue de l'espace avec des lumières de la ville montrant l'activité humaine en Allemagne, France, Espagne, Italie et d'autres pays, rendu 3d de la planète Terre, éléments de la NASA
Europe is faced with a degradation of its security environment, which affects all of the neighboring regional theaters and occurs along the entire conflict spectrum (Russian strategic resurgence, instability and civil wars around the Mediterranean Sea, changing patterns of jihadist terrorism, etc...
Soldiers patrolling near Louvre museum. France strengthened the measures to combat crime and terrorism.
The porosity of borders has become a key characteristic of contemporary international relations. While this has long been recognized for trade and information networks, it also has an impact on the field of defense and security. ...
29/09/2023

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, marked a turning point in German defense policy. After thirty years of military downsizing, the Bundeswehr found itself at an extremely low capability level just as a high-intensity war involving a great power was breaking out on Europe’s...

27/06/2023

With a rapidly deteriorating security environment, a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, internal disputes exploding into public view, and questions being raised about the scope of its security responsibilities, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) seemed to be in dire straits at the...

15/06/2023
By: Sylvie CORNOT-GANDOLPHE

Although late in adopting clean hydrogen (H2) and defining a national strategy–a draft was presented by the Department of Energy (DOE) in September 2022–, the United States (US) has strongly reinforced its support to clean hydrogen with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in...

16/05/2023
By: Jérémy BACHELIER, Héloïse FAYET, Alexandre JONNEKIN, François RENAUD

From the joint and combined Orion 2023 exercice to the deployment of Leclerc tanks in Romania, through the qualification fire of new missiles, the French armed forces conduct many manoeuvres and activities that are now described as falling under the "strategic signaling".

17/04/2023

Since 2016, the tactical drone TB2 Bayraktar—“standard bearer” in Turkish—has received considerable media attention, particularly during the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020. Thanks to Azerbaijan’s victory over its neighbor Armenia, the drone, manufactured by Baykar, is now a proven combat...

30/03/2023

The Red Team Defence demonstrates the Ministry of the Armed Forces' desire to appropriate new foresight tools. Thus, brain games or serious games aim to bypass the weight of the military hierarchy, the standardisation of thoughts and cognitive biases in order to avoid strategic unthinking.

22/02/2023
By: Alice BILLON-GALLAND, Elie TENENBAUM

The Franco-British Summit on March 10th, 2023, will mark a much-needed reset in bilateral cooperation, following years of strained relations. With a recently re-elected French president and a new British Prime minister, both sides are committed to making this summit a success and re-launching...

09/01/2023

Our world is becoming increasingly contested and unpredictable and we are trending towards a return of great power strategic competition, characterized by more frequent challenges to the established rules-based international order. As a consequence, the risk of interstate conflict continues to...

01
Feb
2023
Wednesday 01 February 2023 to Thursday 02 February 2023
from Wednesday 1 February 2023 15:00 to Thursday 2 February 2023 14:00 - Seminars and Round-table Conferences

The Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) and the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri) are organizing the fifth edition of the 4x4 Directors Forum on February 1-2, 2023, in Rabat, Morocco.

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09
Jun
2022
Thursday 09 June 2022
from 12:30 to 14:00 - Conférences

Russia’s war on Ukraine has shaken the foundations of Western foreign policy and the multilateral rules-based order. Institutions built to preserve this order – like NATO, the G7, and the EU – have had to rethink their threat assessments and postures. France, Germany, Italy, and the UK have...

25
Oct
2021
Monday 25 October 2021 to Tuesday 26 October 2021
from Monday 25 October 2021 14:00 to Tuesday 26 October 2021 12:30 - Seminars and Round-table Conferences

Since 1983, the QUAD gathers every year, the SWP, RAND Corporation, Chatham House and Ifri. The QUAD was set up during the Euromissile crisis and brings together European and American diplomats, military officers, journalists and research fellow to debate on current geopolitical issues.<...>