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.
Research Fellow, Director of Ifri's Security Studies Center
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Military Fellow, Security Studies Center
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Research Fellow, Security Studies Center
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Research Fellow, Security Studies Center
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Research Fellow, Coordinator of the Defense Research Unit - LRD, Security Studies Center
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Director of Research and Communications, Editor-in-Chief of Politique étrangère, and research fellow at the Security Studies Center
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Research Fellow, Head of Ifri's Geopolitics of Technology Program
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Research Fellow, Security Studies Center
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Associate Research Fellow, Security Studies Center
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Advisor, Security Studies Center
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Associate Research Fellow, Security Studies Center
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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.
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...
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...
Since 2012, the proliferation of jihadist groups across the Sahel has monopolized the attention of the authorities.forced by the threats they represent and the weakening of their regal power, states are gradually withdrawing from their peripheral rural territories. As a result, populations...
While a state of siege was declared a year ago in two Congolese provinces and Kenyan authorities organized a meeting in Nairobi between the Congolese government and armed groups, the pacification of the Congolese East remains unresolved. This study looks back at the Tshisekedi government's...
The war in Ukraine is a reminder of the place of attrition from high-intensity conflict in European armies that have been cut to the bone after three decades of budget cuts. All European forces have had to reduce their stocks to the bare minimum. As a result, support to Ukraine has meant a...
France has a historical presence in the Middle East, where it has many interests to defend: the fight against terrorism, the promotion of the arms industry, the dissemination of humanitarian values, etc. To this end, it has a number of resources at its disposal, notably military: French forces...
Back in September 2021, the announcement of AUKUS – the defense partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) was a shock to Paris.
The use of civilian technologies on the battlefield—one of the lessons that can be drawn from recent conflicts—is attracting growing interest from the armed forces of France and other nations. The growing number of examples of effective integration of civilian technologies...
The signing of the AUKUS partnership agreement between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom in September 2021 seems to have reconstituted a natural coalition between “Anglo-Saxon” states. This solidarity generates contradictory judgments.
As the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine shattered the security of Europe, a new sense of cohesion has spread throughout Western nations.
A conference with Esa Pulkkinen, Permanent Secretary of the Finnish Ministry of Defense, and Peter Sandwall, State Secretary to the Swedish Minister of Defense.
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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A conference organized by Ifri and the French Navy. The world has entered a new strategic cycle, characterized by the assertion of new powers eager to revise the international order, the predominance of unilateralism, and the increased risk of confrontation between States.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine last February provoked a war of attrition that is still ongoing. In the meantime, the conflict has fueled intertwined economic, humanitarian, energy and food crises. This discussion aims to discern the conflict's immediate and future effects.
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...
A conference with Benedetta Berti, head of Policy Planning in the Office of the Secretary General at NATO.
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.<...>
Global power competition, growing unpredictability, mounting military pressures, hybrid threats and the persistence of terrorism... Europe is now facing a deterioration of its strategic environment.
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To what extent has the COVID-19 pandemic affected defense priorities across Europe?
France may send Ukraine its AMX-10Ps, an amphibious infantry fighting vehicle that was phased out of service by the French army nearly a decade ago.
Training and equipping of Ukrainian forces is an immediate priority.
As Emmanuel Macron prepares to welcome Rishi Sunak to Paris, hopes are high that the first UK-France summit since 2018 will turn the page on years of strained post-Brexit relations.
President Emmanuel Macron kicks off a tour of Central Africa on Wednesday in a diplomatic drive to test out a new "responsible relationship" with the continent as anti-French sentiment runs high in some former colonies
A conference with Esa Pulkkinen, Permanent Secretary of the Finnish Ministry of Defense, and Peter Sandwall, State Secretary to the Swedish Minister of Defense, held at Ifri on February 9, 2023.
The heads of the three leading NATO navies, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Admiral Mike Gilday, First Sea Lord, Admiral Ben Key, and the Chief of Staff of the French Navy, Admiral Pierre Vandier, met last week in France for the first ever "Paris Naval Conference".
CNO Delivers Remarks at Paris Naval Conference
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An interview with the chiefs of staff of the French, American, and British navies.
A conference organized by Ifri and the French Navy with British, French and American speakers to reflect on the evolution of naval strategy and the impact of new technologies on navies.
French President Emmanuel Macron was poised to arrive in Jordan for a two-day visit starting on Tuesday, December 20. French troops are deployed in the country as part of the Chammal military operation. Héloïse Fayet, a researcher with the Institut Français des Relations...
