François Géré

François Géré (born August 28, 1950), a French historian specializing in geostrategy, is notably the founding president of the French strategic analysis institute, the Institut français d’analyse stratégique (IFAS).

He is also an official representative for the French Institute of Higher National Defense Studies, the Institut des Hautes études de défense nationale (IHEDN) and research director at Paris III University.

François Géré was born in Paris on August 28, 1950.

In 1975, he became Agrégé in History, PhD in 1991, then in 2000 he obtained post-doctoral research accreditation (Docteur Habilité) in contemporary history at the University of Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle, where he was appointed research director in 2003.

At the same time, he contributed from 1977 to 1982 to the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma , under the section “Cinéma, Histoire et Guerre” (Cinema, History, and War).

As early as 1985, he specialized in analysis of irregular wars (Indochina, Algeria, etc.) and the first developments of the nuclear weapon under the French Fourth Republic, as well as in the study of the different currents of French and American strategic thought since 1945.

In 1988, he entered the Fondation pour les etudes de defense nationale, where until 1992 he was student and assistant to General Lucien Poirier, a theoretician in nuclear deterrence.

During several stays in the United States, he trained in the physics of nuclear weapons and in ballistics from the perspective of oversight processes for arms control treaties.

In 1993, François Géré was technical advisor for nuclear affairs and official representative for arms control at the French national secretariat for national defense and security (Secrétariat général de la défense et de la sécurité nationale).

In 1994-95, he was visiting professor at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., where he taught French foreign and defense policy.

Senior researcher in 1994 at the Centre de Recherches et d'Études sur les Stratégies et les Technologies or Centre for Study of Strategies and Technologies (CREST) of the École Polytechnique in Palaiseau (France), in 1997 he became director of scientific affairs at the Foundation for Strategic Research, then in 2001 founded the Institut Diplomatie et Défense, which in 2003 became the Institut français d'analyse stratégique (IFAS), of which he is director (see below for more details on the IFAS).

Starting in 1998, François Géré developed an independent research program on the relations between China, the United States and the European Union.

The Institut français d’analyse stratégique studies all the conflicts around the world.

Its analyses focus on the material and spiritual motives that generate them, on the military forms that they take, in particular terrorism and guerrilla warfare, and on all the technological instruments that they use.

Because of the extreme importance of this latter component, the IFAS analyzes nuclear proliferation, chemical and bio-bacteriological risks, and strategies connected to missiles and anti-missiles.

as well as the development of military activity in space.

IFAS activities comprise all the fields connected with nuclear warfare, added to which is research on the conflicts and terrorism in the Middle East.

The institute studies procedures for controlling organized violence and returning to a state of peace, and the role of international organizations in managing and resolving crises.

In this perspective, it gives special attention to information operations, psychological action, and conflict mediation.

The IFAS approach consists in combining field studies (Pakistan, Iran, Israel, Palestine, etc.) with theoretical considerations on the modern forms of war as linked to the historical and anthropological constants governing human confrontations.

At the same time, he directed the Institut Diplomatie et Défense (2001–2004).

He was awarded the distinction of Knight of the French Legion of Honor in 2005.

"World Governance of Civilian and Military Nuclear Energy", Proposal Paper, Forum for a new World Governance, March 2010, 64 pp.

On the IFAS Web site:

On the Web site of Le Monde diplomatique:

On the Web site of Le Figaro: