Nathalie Loiseau: "La guerre qu'on ne voit pas venir" (The war we can't see coming)

18 September 2023

Foundation

The Foundation is honored to welcome Nathalie Loiseau, Member of the European Parliament and Minister of European Affairs from 2017 to 2019, on March 16 for a Grand Témoin conference. This will be an opportunity for her to look back on her experience at the highest level of international relations and to discuss her book, "La guerre qu'on ne voit pas venir", recently published by Editions de l'Observatoire. The conference will be followed by a book signing.

Nathalie Loiseau, députée européenne et ministre des Affaires européenne de 2017 à 2019.
Nathalie Loiseau, députée européenne et ministre des Affaires européenne de 2017 à 2019. © Wikipedia‎

Diplomat, Director of ENA, Minister for European Affairs (2017-2019), Nathalie Loiseau has held the highest positions in French administration and diplomacy.

She worked for twenty-six years at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her postings included Indonesia, Senegal and Morocco. In 1993, she was the youngest member of Foreign Minister Alain Juppé's cabinet. During the Iraq war in 2003, she was spokeswoman for the French Embassy in the United States. In 2011, she was appointed Director General of Administration at the Quai d'Orsay. The following year, she became director of the École nationale d'administration (ENA).

From 2017 to 2019, she was Minister for European Affairs in the second Édouard Philippe government. She left the government to lead the majority list in the 2019 European elections and became an MEP. At the end of 2022, she published a book entitled "La guerre qu'on ne voit pas venir" on the invisible threats to our European democracies, the theme of this Grand Témoin conference.

The institute and its foundation are honored to count Nathalie Loiseau among their alumni (Mandarin).

"La guerre qu'on ne voit pas venir", abstract:

We Europeans believe we live in peace, protected for over half a century from the tumults of the world. Yet, before our very eyes, and without our being the wiser, war has been declared. Authoritarian and unfriendly powers are using our space of freedom as a playground, hoping to divide and weaken us. Disinformation campaigns, cyber-attacks and interference in our electoral campaigns and political life have multiplied. Fake news, fake media, real trolls: the infox now touches on everything from Covid to women's and minority rights, via the war in Ukraine. Our European democracies are harassed, criticized and slandered, so that their foundations wobble and their influence diminishes. We are perfectly capable of winning these invisible wars that are being waged against us, provided we measure their scale and do not hesitate to fight for our values. These invisible wars, we certainly don't have the right to lose them?

The Grand Témoin lecture

The lecture will focus on the topic "La guerre qu'on ne voit pas venir" and will be followed by a signing session and a cocktail.
It will be held on Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 6:30pm at the Inalco Foundation in the Dumézil auditorium at 2 rue de Lille (Paris, 75007). The conference will also be recorded and available as a replay for those unable to attend.

Entrance is by registration, subject to availability.