François Heisbourg is senior adviser for Europe of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies and special advisor of the Paris-based Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique.

He has served in government (e.g. international security adviser to the Defence Minister), the defence industry, academia (professor of the world politics course at Sciences-Po Paris) and the think-tank world (director of the IISS and the FRS). He sat on blue-ribbon bodies, notably the French government’s White Paper on terrorism (2006) and the Defence and National Security White Papers (in 2007-8 and 2012-3); the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament; the International Commission on the Balkans)..

He chaired the IISS (2001-2018) and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), (1998- 2018). 

He was a Richard von Weizsäcker fellow at the Bosch academy in Berlin (2015-17).

François Heisbourg dealt with defence and national security issues as part of Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign in 2016-17. He has been, and is currently, involved in the French debate on arms deliveries to Ukraine. 

His latest book is « Les leçons d’une guerre », éditions Odile Jacob, Paris, 2023

Twitter : @FHeisbourg