Agathe Demarais

Agathe Demarais is a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Her areas of interest include the global economy, geopolitics, and sanctions. She heads ECFR’s geoeconomics initiative and co-leads ECFR’s Re:Order project, exploring emerging visions of the global order, as well as the interplay between economic might and geopolitical influence. She is based in London, with frequent trips to Paris.

Before joining ECFR, Demarais was the global forecasting director of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research arm of The Economist. She led the EIU’s global economic and geopolitical analysis, with a particular focus on trade developments, emerging markets, and economic statecraft.

Demarais is the author of “Backfire”, a book on the global ripple effects of sanctions and export controls. The book draws on her experience as an economic policy advisor for the diplomatic corps of the French Treasury in Russia and Lebanon. She also previously worked in investment banking in Russia and the United States.

She is a regular columnist for Foreign Policy and a frequent commentator for the media. Her essays have appeared in The Economist, The Times, Foreign Affairs, Politico, Le Grand Continent, the Journal of Democracy, and World Politics Review.

Demarais holds master’s degrees from Sciences Po Paris and Columbia University, where she was a Fulbright scholar. She is a younger generation leader of the European Leadership Network, a participant in the Franco-British Young Leaders programme, and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network.