Institut Français Des Relations Internationales
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The Institut français des relations internationales (Ifri; English ''French Institute of International Relations'') is a
think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
dedicated to
international affairs International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
, based in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
.


Overview

Ifri was established in 1979 by Thierry de Montbrial, who was inspired by the American model of research institutions. Ifri aims at gathering decision-makers and researchers to develop research and debate on major contemporary international issues. In 2011, for the fourth consecutive year, Ifri was the only French based research institution to be ranked among the top 50 most influential think tanks worldwide outside of the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, placing 3rd in
Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...
according to "Global Go-To Think Tanks", a study undertaken by a team of researchers from the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
, and ranking more than 6,480 institutes located in 169 countries. Ifri’s goal is to: * Develop applied research in the field of
public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...
, related to international issues; and * Foster interactive and constructive dialogue between researchers, professionals, and opinion leaders. Ifri is independent from all administrative and financial regulatory authorities and has no affiliation with any political party. Its political and intellectual independence is paramount and the Institute chose to diversify its public and private sources of funding. Its budget amounts to about 6.5 million Euros, about 70% of which is from private sources. Ifri employs 60 people or so, 30 of them being French, and the balance are foreign researchers from various backgrounds. More than half of them are less than 40 years old. Outside of their research work, every year, Ifri hosts guest speakers from all over the world for them to shed light upon international issues. The Institute organizes about 40 conferences each year in Paris (42 in 2011). Guest speakers from previous years have included, among others:
Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa ( ; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge in 2014 to obtain information ...
,
Dmitri Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev was also President of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and Prime Mini ...
,
Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese retired politician who served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the president of China from 2003 to 2013, and chairman of the Central Military Comm ...
, Jalal Talabani,
Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014, including as the first president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014. He previously served a ...
,
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
,
Mikheil Saakashvili Mikheil "Misha" Saakashvili (born 21 December 1967) is a Georgian and Ukrainian politician and jurist. He was the third president of Georgia for two consecutive terms from 25 January 2004 to 17 November 2013. He is the founder and former chair ...
,
Abdoulaye Wade Abdoulaye Wade (, ; born 29 May 1926) is a Senegalese politician who served as the third president of Senegal from 2000 to 2012. He is also the Secretary-General of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), having led the party since it was founded ...
, Vaclav Klaus,
Pervez Musharraf Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...
,
Abdullah Gül Abdullah Gül (; ; born 29 October 1950) is a Turkish politician who served as the 11th president of Turkey from 2007 to 2014. He previously served for four months as Prime Minister of Turkey, Prime Minister from 2002 to 2003, and concurrently s ...
, Boris Tadic,
Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych (born 9 July 1950) is a Ukrainian politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014. He also served as the prime minister of Ukraine several times between 2002 and 2007 and was a member of t ...
, Paul Kagamé, Herman Van Rompuy,
José Manuel Barroso José Manuel Durão Barroso (; born 23 March 1956) is a Portuguese politician and law professor. He previously served from 2002 to 2004 as the List of Prime Ministers of Portugal, 114th prime minister of Portugal and from 2004–2014 as the 11 ...
, and
Anders Fogh Rasmussen Anders Fogh Rasmussen (; born 26 January 1953) is a Danish politician who was the prime minister of Denmark from November 2001 to April 2009 and the Secretary General of NATO, secretary general of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014. He became ...
.


History

In 1973, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Michel Jobert Michel Jobert (; 11 September 1921 – 25 May 2002) was a French politician of the left-wing Gaullism, Gaullist orientation. He served as Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (France), Minister of Foreign Affairs under Georges Pompidou, and ...
under President
Georges Pompidou Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( ; ; 5 July 19112 April 1974) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He previously served as Prime Minister of France under President Charles de Gaulle from 19 ...
put Thierry de Montbrial in charge of establishing the '' Centre d’Analyse et de Prévision'' at the Ministry in order to analyze the international relations system. This encouraged him to imagine an independent research center dedicated to this subject. In 1979, he founded Ifri with the support of Prime Minister
Raymond Barre Raymond Octave Joseph Barre (; 12 April 192425 August 2007) was a French politician and economist. He was a Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs under three presidents ( Rey, Malfatti a ...
and Minister of Foreign Affairs Louis de Guiringaud and his successor Jean François-Poncet. Marc Gilbert , ex producer of Italiques at the
Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française The (; ORTF; , or French Radio and Television Broadcasting Office) was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1975, with providing public radio and television in France. All programming, especially news broadcasts, were under strict cont ...
became the general secretary. Ifri was established upon an already existing institution, the ''Centre d’Etudes de Politique Etrangère'' founded in 1935 by French universities and by the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...
. Today, the Institute has about 80 partner companies and almost 400 members, who are either private individuals or state and NGO institutions.
Dominique Moïsi Dominique Moïsi (born 21 October 1946) is a French political scientist and writer. He was a co-founder and is a senior advisor of the Paris-based Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI), ''Pierre Keller Visiting Professor'' at H ...
is a special advisor.


Networks and international influence

Ifri works in partnership with its counterparts on a regular basis; the
RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries. Since the ...
, the
Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...
, the Council On Foreign Relations and the
Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. From its founding in 1962 until 1987, it was an affiliate of Georgetown University, initially named the Center for Strategic and Inte ...
(CSIS), the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA), the
Moscow State Institute of International Relations Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (, also known as MGIMO University) is an higher education, institute of higher education located in Moscow, Russia. The institute is run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Russian ...
(MGIMO), the
French-Korean Foundation French Korean or Korean French may refer to * French people in Korea * Koreans in France * France-North Korea relations * France-South Korea relations {{disambiguation ...
, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik, and others. Ifri has also had a presence in
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
since March 2005; Ifri Bruxelles organizes about 30 events each year.


Missions

The policy oriented research advocated by Ifri aims at highlighting the important international events. It is mainly addressed to political and economical decision-makers, academic institutions,
opinion leaders Opinion leadership is leadership by an active media user who interprets the meaning of media messages or content for lower-end media users. Typically opinion leaders are held in high esteem by those who accept their opinions. Opinion leadership com ...
as well as representative of civil societies. To carry out this ambition, its work is divided into research centers which are organized by * regions (
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
,
Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
,
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
,
Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
/
Maghreb The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...
, contemporary
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
, the
United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...
,
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
/ NIS, French-German relations) * and themes (
globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...
and global economics, strategic and security issues, migrations and identity issues, energy geopolitics,
climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...
, etc.). Each center publishes its own collection online, available on the Ifri website.


Publications

''Ramsès'', an annual collective work and the quarterly magazine '' Politique Etrangère'' are the two main editorial activities of Ifri. Since 1981, the annual report ''Ramsès'' is dedicated to the main global trends, and its circulation runs about 10,000 copies. '' Politique Etrangère'', which was created in 1936, is the first French magazine on the subject. This quarterly magazine offers a cross-divisional vision of the current international affairs. A special issue was published in 2006 to celebrate the magazine’s 70th anniversary. Along with these two references, Ifri also publishes shorter or more specialized works; ''Notes de l’Ifri'' and ''Les Etudes de l’Ifri'', a short magazine named ''Actuelles de l’Ifri'' as well as Ifri’s online collections – about 10 – and the books written by the Ifri researchers. Ifri publishes its findings in several languages. In 2012, 12 of these books were published, four of which in foreign languages, as well as 130 ''Notes d'Ifri'', half of which in foreign languages – English, German and Russian.


Funding

Ifri’s budget amounted to about 6.5 million Euros in 2011. Ifri's sources of funding are various: subsidies or State contracts, private funding from individuals or companies. The members list is available online under the Ifri’s Partners section.


References


Ifri - home page

The think tanks and civil societies programm (2009)


External links


Académie Diplomatique Internationale (English)

Académie Diplomatique Internationale (French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Institut francais des relations internationales Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in France Political and economic think tanks based in France Think tanks established in 1979 1979 establishments in France