France’s Global Role in a Changing World Order

Name: France’s Global Role in a Changing World Order
Start: 2023-04-19T11:30:00-0400
End: 2023-04-19T12:45:00-0400

RSVP Required Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

Please join the Harvard Kennedy School Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship for a seminar with Édouard Philippe, former Prime Minister of France, to discuss France's role in the world and Europe's current security landscape. France still aims to recover its « grandeur », regularly examining its role and influence. It's looking to find its place within the EU and questions the EU's ability to be a real power on the international scene. How can France and the EU defend their role in a broken and imbalanced world divided into spheres of influence? From China to Turkey, authoritarian regimes have grown, asserting their way to build stability and sometimes to achieve prosperity, threatening multilateralism. How can transatlantic relationship remain a strong pillar of global security?

This conversation will be co-moderated by Natalie Colbert, Executive Director of the Belfer Center, and Svenja Kirsch, Fellow with the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship.

Please note: In person registration is now at capacity. Virtual registration is still open.

Date: Wed, Apr 19, 2023 Time: 11:30am - 12:45pm Location: Belfer Building - Starr Auditorium, Floor 2.5

Speakers

<> Édouard Philippe

Édouard Philippe is a French politician serving as Mayor of Le Havre since 2020, previously holding the office from 2010 to 2017. He is, since November 2021, President of the International Network of Port Cities (AIVP). Prior to his posting as mayor, he was Prime Minister of France from May 2017 to July 2020 under President Emmanuel Macron. He served as a member of the National Assembly from 2012 to 2017, representing the seventh constituency of Seine-Maritime.

A lawyer by occupation, Edouard Philippe is also a writer, who has published two novels with co-author and friend Gilles Boyer, L’Heure de vérité (2007, Flammarion), Dans l’ombre (2011, JC Lattès) and an essay on his vision of government, Impressions et lignes claires (2021, JC Lattès). He has also published a personal work of non-fiction, exploring his love of literature: Des hommes qui lisent (2017, JC Lattès)

<> Natalie Colbert

Natalie Colbert is the Belfer Center’s Executive Director.

Before coming to the Center, Colbert served in the Central Intelligence Agency for 13 years. Most recently, she was Director of Analytic Resources and Corporate Programs for the Near East Mission Center, where she led strategic management of analytic personnel resources and created a career development seminar for mid-level analysts.

Prior to this role, Colbert led multiple analytic teams to produce intelligence assessments covering fast-paced issues in the Middle East for the President and other customers in the policymaking, intelligence, and military communities. Colbert previously served as an intelligence analyst covering conflict zones in Africa and Latin America.

Across her CIA career, Colbert has earned awards for leadership excellence and in 2021 received the Near East Mission Center Award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Colbert is a 2008 graduate of Harvard Kennedy School, where she earned a Master in Public Policy. She graduated in 2006 from New York University, majoring in International Relations and Francophone Studies.

<> Svenja Kirsch

Svenja Meike Kirsch is a Fellow from Germany. Her research focuses on perspectives for European security policy amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Specific issues she is interested in include the future role of NATO and the EU, implications of Germany's increased security spending for transatlantic and EU-internal relations, the role of the private sector as a safeguard of economic freedom around the world, paths to European energy independence, and implications for liberal democracies arising from the rise of cyberwarfare.

Prior to joining the Belfer Center, Kirsch was a Fulbright and DAAD scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School from which she graduated with a Master in Public Policy degree. At Harvard, she led the Corporate Responsibility Sector of the Business and Government Professional Interest Council, served as Sustainability Leadership Council Representative, and worked as a research assistant at the M-RCBG. Her experience includes positions in sustainability management, social mission consulting, political campaigning and think tank research. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations with a minor in Global Economics and Management.