Institute for Strategic Research (IRSEM)

The Institute for Strategic Research (Institut de recherche stratégique de l’École militaire, IRSEM) is the research institute of the French Ministry of Armed Forces. An external body of the Directorate General for International Relations and Strategy (DGRIS), it is located within the Ecole militaire in Paris. Composed of about 40 members of staff, including around 30 full-time permanent researchers, its director since 2016 is Jean-Baptiste Jeangene Vilmer.

Being part of the Ministry of Armed Forces, from where it receives the entirety of its funding, it is not a private organization and, for that reason, it presents itself not as a "think-tank" but as a “research institute”. It does, in fact, have an academic nature: according to the ministerial decree establishing IRSEM, its scientific director must be a University Professor, civilian researchers must hold a PhD and research directors must hold an habilitation à diriger des recherches. As mentioned on its website, it also counts among its staff a University Lecturer and a Research Director from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Its researchers teach at university, publish peer-reviewed articles and academic books. Some of them have been awarded funding from the French National Research Agency (ANR). IRSEM also hosts a doctoral seminar, hires 3 postdoctoral researchers each year and publishes a scientific journal with the Sciences Po Press (Les Champs de Mars), which is also peer-reviewed.

In parallel, IRSEM also has an “operational vocation”: some of its staff are military officers and it conducts internal studies for the Ministry, including the Chief of the Defence Staff. It has a role in defence diplomacy and “wholly accepts this policy-oriented aspect of its work”: as a result, the Institute defines itself as having a “hybrid” nature.

History

Established de facto in September 2009 and de jure by a ministerial decree of October 2010, IRSEM resulted from the merging of 4 now defunct Ministry of Defence's research centres (Centre d’études en sciences sociales de la défense, 1995-2010; Centre d’études d’histoire de la défense, 1994-2010; Centre d’études et de recherches de l’enseignement militaire supérieur, 2001-2010; and the research department of the Centre des hautes études de l’armement, 1964-2010).

Mission

IRSEM has been given 4 missions: - Research, both internal (for the Ministry) and external (to be published); - Strenghtening the “next generation” by supporting young researchers through doctoral and postdoctoral grants and a monthly doctoral seminar; - Contributing to the advanced military education by teaching and supervising research at École de guerre and the Centre for Higher Military Studies (CHEM); - Contributing to the public debate by organising events, publishing material and appearing in the media.

Publications

IRSEM has its own collections of works of different formats (strategic briefs, research papers, reports and the Champs the Mars scientific journal). Its researchers also regularly publish academic papers and books, articles and interviews.

References

This article "Institute for Strategic Research (IRSEM)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Institute for Strategic Research (IRSEM). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)

• NTS-KEM
• Belgrade Assembly (1–2 January 1810)
• Rohit Srivastava
• The Falcon 147
• Feedzai
• The Epistles
• Gail Cramer

---