FRANCOIS HEISBOURG

Director, Fondation pour la Recherche Strategique
France

Born on June 24th, 1949 .

Professor Heisbourg's long and distinguished career began as a member of the French foreign ministry's policy planning staff in charge of nuclear non-proliferation issues in 1978/79. He then acted as the First Secretary at the French Permanent Mission to the U.N. (New-York), dealing with international security and disarmament issues till 1981.

From 1981-84 he was the International security adviser to the French Minister of Defense as well as a Founding-member of the French-German Commission on Security and Defense. From 1984 -87 Prof. Heisbourg worked as Vice-President at Thomson-CSF, in charge of European and Euro-American cooperation and in 1987, took over the Directorship of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. For the years 1992-98, he was Senior Vice-President (Strategic development) at MATRA-Defense-Espace and subsequently was made Director of the Fondation pour la Recherche Strategique in Paris.

Prof. Heisbourg's numerous articles and interviews in the academic and general media in both English and French include "La Puce, les Hommes et la Bombe" with Pascal Boniface; "The Future of Warfare"; "European Defense: Making It Work"; "The Conventional Defense of Europe"; "Allied divided: Transatlantic Policies for the Greater Middle East" and "Nuclear Weapons in a Transformed World". Professor Heisbourg's professional affiliations include: Chairman of the IISS Council; Adviser to the French Foreign Ministry Planning Staff; Board member of the Aspen Institute in Berlin and Member of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce.