Panel Discussion
French Foreign Policy and the 2022 Election
Zoom Webinar
Tuesday, March 15, 2022 | 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET
The French presidential election is just about a month away, but Russia’s war in Ukraine is dominating French media. The war may keep Macron off the campaign trail but the benefit for him is clear. It was the perfect opportunity for Macron to demonstrate his leadership while his far-right and far-left opponents have been stuck defending their past sympathies for Vladimir Putin and their calls to withdraw France from NATO. How is Macron´s foreign policy already influenced by the upcoming elections? What is at stake for NATO and the EU at this pivotal point in history? And what are the decisive issues for the French electorate?
Join the discussion on Tuesday, March 15th, from 12:00 to 1:00 PM ET with our expert panel consisting of Célia Belin, Visiting Fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings, Charles Kupchan, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of Government, and Tara Varma, Senior Policy Fellow and Head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Joanna M. Gwozdziowski, Network 20/20’s Senior Program Advisor.
COULDN’T ATTEND OUR EVENT? Don’t worry. You can watch it below
Suggested readings from our speakesr
Celia Belin, Feb. 10, 2022, Monsieur Fixit: The Perils of Macron’s Shuttle Diplomacy, Foreign Affairs.
SPEAKERS:
Célia Belin
Célia Belin is a visiting fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings. Her areas of expertise include trans-Atlantic relations, U.S. foreign policy toward Europe, French politics and foreign policy, domestic determinants of foreign policy, and the politics of travel under COVID. She is the author of “Des Démocrates en Amérique: L’heure des choix face à Trump,” which was published by Fayard-Fondation Jean Jaurès in 2020.
Prior to joining Brookings, she served for over five years as an advisor on U.S. affairs and trans-Atlantic relations in the French foreign ministry’s Centre d’Analyse, de Prévision et de Stratégie (policy planning staff), where she recommended policy options through notes, reports, speech-writing, and transition documents, as well as conducted 1.5 dialogues and led multiple long-term research projects on areas of strategic importance to French foreign policy. Belin was also chief editor of the center’s flagship publication, Les Carnets du CAPS. She taught U.S. foreign policy to master’s students at University Paris 2 and University of Saint-Denis. Previously, Belin was a guest fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and a visiting research scholar in the Middle East Institute at Columbia University.
Belin holds a doctorate in political science (University Paris 2), a master’s degree in international relations (University Paris 2), and a bachelor’s degree in Modern Languages/Business (University of Burgundy). Her dissertation on Evangelical pro-Israel lobbying in the U.S. was published by Fayard (Jésus est juif en Amérique, 2011), and the book received a “particular mention” from the Emile Perreau-Saussine prize on political philosophy. Belin writes regularly on U.S. affairs and trans-Atlantic relations, is a frequent commentator on radio and television, and recently co-edited a book on U.S. foreign policy (Les Etats-Unis dans le monde, CNRS editions, 2016).
Charles Kupchan
Charles Kupchan is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and professor of international affairs at Georgetown University in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of Government.
From 2014 to 2017, Kupchan served as special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs on the staff of the National Security Council (NSC) in the Barack Obama administration. He was also director for European affairs on the NSC during the first Bill Clinton administration. Before joining the Clinton NSC, he worked in the U.S. Department of State on the policy planning staff. Previously, he was an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University.
Kupchan is the author of Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself From the World (2020), No One’s World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn (2012), How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace (2010), The End of the American Era: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-first Century (2002), Power in Transition: The Peaceful Change of International Order (2001), Civic Engagement in the Atlantic Community (1999), Atlantic Security: Contending Visions (1998), Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe (1995), The Vulnerability of Empire (1994), The Persian Gulf and the West (1987), and numerous articles on international and strategic affairs.
Kupchan has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs, Columbia University’s Institute for War and Peace Studies, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Centre d’Étude et de Recherches Internationales in Paris, and the Institute for International Policy Studies in Tokyo. From 2006 to 2007, he was the Henry A. Kissinger scholar at the Library of Congress and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. From 2013 to 2014, he was a senior fellow at the Transatlantic Academy.
Kupchan received his BA from Harvard University and MPhil and DPhil from Oxford University.
Tara Varma
Tara Varma is a senior policy fellow and head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, where she follows French foreign policy and European and Asian security developments.
She looks particularly at current French defence and security proposals in the European framework. She is also interested in Asian security, and the role Europeans could play in it, notably in the Indo-Pacific region. Varma joined ECFR in January 2015 as a coordinator and then deputy head of the Paris office. She previously worked and lived in Shanghai, Delhi and Paris. She graduated from Sciences Po Lille and SOAS in London in International Relations, with a focus on Asian Politics and Indian and Chinzaese foreign policies.
MODERATOR:
Joanna M. Gwozdziowski
Joanna M. Gwozdziowski, PhD is a nonprofit management consultant with experience in both domestic and international affairs. She has held positions in a variety of sectors, including federal and municipal governments, academia, think tanks, NGOs, and political campaigns. She has served as a foreign policy advisor to congressional candidates, including Connecticut Congressman Jim Himes and Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy. Most recently, she has been researching global macro trends for several nonprofits, including the international humanitarian relief organization, Americares. She has also served on the selection committee for various global educational programs, including the US State Department’s Mandela Washington Fellowship.
For the past 13 years, Dr. Gwozdziowski has served on the board of the World Affairs Forum, an affiliate of the World Affairs Councils of America, including as Chair of Programs. She is a Charter member of Network 20/20 and participated as a Public Diplomacy Delegate to Poland in 2004; she authored the subsequent report “Poland Beyond Solidarity”. She earned both a Master’s degree and a Doctorate from St. Antony’s College, Oxford University and holds a Bachelor’s degree from UCLA. In addition, she is a graduate of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University, and was an Encore Fellow in Nonprofit Management at the University of Connecticut.
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