Ambassador of France, president of the board of directors of IHEDN (Institute of Advanced Studies in National Defence) since January 2020

Sylvie Bermann has successively been the ambassador for France in China (2011–2014), the United Kingdom (2014–2017) and Russia (2017–2019).

Having joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1979, she was posted to the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong (1979–1980), to the Embassy of France in Peking (1980–1982) and then to the Embassy of France in Moscow (1986–1989). Besides her roles on bilateral issues in posts such as in the central government (Asia Department), her career has focused on multilateral, European (head of the CFSP at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 1996–2000, ambassador to the to the European Union’s Political and Security Committee in Brussels, 2002–2005) and UN (Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in New York, 1992–1996, and director for United Nations, International Organizations, Human Rights and Francophony at the Quai d’Orsay).

Sylvie Bermann has been president of the board of directors of the IHEDN since January 2020.

She is the author of “La Chine en eaux profondes” [China in deep waters] (Stock, 2017), dealing with forty years of experience in China and of “Goodbye Britannia, le Royaume-Uni au défi du Brexit” [Goodbye Britannia, the United Kingdom and the challenge of Brexit] (Stock, 2021)

Sylvie Bermann is an Officier of the Ordre National du Mérite and of the Légion d’Honneur.