Lecturers Dr. Rosa Balfour, Dr. Nicole Gnesotto

En collaboration avec l'European External Action Service (EEAS), et sous le patronage de Josep Borrell, Haut représentant de l'Union européenne pour les affaires étrangères et la politique de sécurité et Vice-Président de la Commission européenne, l'Académie proposera le 7 février 2022 de 17 à 19 h la quatrième séance de son « Brussels International College ».

Les invitées seront Rosa Belfour et Nicole Gnesotto.

Conference cycle 2021-2022

In the context of a complex and changing world, it is important to understand how the European Union articulates its values and interests with the common global challenges of the human kind. The Conference cycle 2021-2022 will address the main international political, economic and cultural challenges of the XXI century and the construction of a European Union common strategic culture through an open dialogue with outstanding scholars and highly qualified discussants coming from various cultures and world regions.

This conference cycle is jointly organised by the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium and the European External Action Service, under the patronage and effective participation of Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission. The conference cycle is co-chaired by Didier Viviers, permanent Secretary of the Academy, and Professor Mario Telò, who, as scientific director, will introduce the 2021-2022 program.




What means to be a global power in the 21st century? The multipolar order is shifting from multipolarity towards a bifurcation between China and USA affecting security, politics interests, alliances, and culture. Security dilemmas also affect EU-Russia relations. On the one hand, according to both HRVP Josep Borrell and the French rotating presidency, the surrounding threats and the data on general rearmament are pushing the European defense on the current political agenda, including an open transatlantic discussion about NATO’s future. On the other hand, coping with internal diversities is urgent. How? The open debate focuses on alternative ways. And the overarching question is: how can the EU open strategic autonomy make concrete steps ahead while containing this major risk of becoming the playfield of alternative interests?

Lecturer : Rosa Balfour is Director of Carnegie Europe. Her fields of expertise include European politics, institutions, and foreign and security policy. Her current research focuses on the relationship between domestic politics and Europe’s global role. She has researched and published widely for academia, think tanks, and the international press on issues relating to European politics and international relations, especially on the Mediterranean region, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, EU enlargement, international support for civil society, and human rights and democracy. Balfour is also a member of the steering committee of Women in International Security Brussels (WIIS-Brussels) and an associate fellow at LSE IDEAS. In 2018 and 2019, she was awarded a fellowship on the Europe’s Futures program at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. Since 2021, she is also an honorary patron of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES). Prior to joining Carnegie Europe, Balfour was a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She was also director of the Europe in the World program

Lecturer : Dr. Nicole Gnesotto is Vice-president of the Jacques Delors Institute, Paris, and Professor emeritus at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers. Ms Nicole Gnesotto , ENS pupil, started her career as fellow at the French Institute for foreign Relations (IFRI), while teaching to Sciences Po Paris. She added to this academic expertise a deep knowledge of both the French and the European public service: she was appointed as a deputy chief of the French Foreign Affairs Ministry’s think tank, the Centre d’Analyse et de Prévision (1987 - 90). Then she directed the WEU’s Institute for Security Studies (1999-2001) before becoming the first director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EU-ISS) until 2007. She has been appointed in 2008 to the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, where she created and directed the first Chair on the European Union (2009-2021). Her recent books are Europe : Changer ou périr (Tallandier, 2022), with a preface of Jacques Delors ; L’Europe indispensable (CNRS éditions, 2019). Faut-il enterrer la defense européenne ? (Documentation française, 2017).