Experts & Staff

Célia Belin

Head, ECFR Paris
Senior Policy Fellow

Areas of expertise

Trans-Atlantic relations, US politics and foreign policy, French politics and foreign policy, and domestic determinants of foreign policy

Languages

French, English, Spanish

Biography

Dr Célia Belin is a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and head of its Paris office since  January 2023.

Between 2017 and 2022, Belin was a Visiting Fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe of the Brookings Institution, in Washington DC, and served as the Interim Director of the Center between May and August 2022. She remains affiliated as a non-resident senior fellow with Brookings.

Prior to joining Brookings, Belin served for over five years as a Special Advisor on US and transatlantic affairs in the French foreign ministry’s Centre d’Analyse, de Prévision et de Stratégie and chief editor of the centre’s flagship publication, Les Carnets du CAPS.

She holds a PhD in political science/international relations from the University Panthéon-Assas (Paris 2), an MA in international relations from the University Paris 2 as well as a BA in modern languages and business from the University of Burgundy.

Belin is the author of “Des Démocrates en Amérique: L’heure des choix face à Trump,” published by Fayard-Fondation Jean Jaurès in 2020. She regularly writes in the press and specialised journals on US affairs, French foreign policy and trans-Atlantic relations and is a frequent commentator on radio and television. Belin is also a member of the editorial committee of the online francophone platform Le Rubicon.

Anatomy of a close call: The aftermath of Macron’s great gamble

To form a workable government after the snap election, French parties will need to make coalitions and concessions. But such cooperation runs contrary to French political culture, and the likely divisions risk weakening France’s voice on the international and European stage

Publications

Articles

Anatomy of a close call: The aftermath of Macron’s great gamble

To form a workable government after the snap election, French parties will need to make coalitions and concessions. But such cooperation runs contrary to French political culture, and the likely divisions risk weakening France’s voice on the international and European stage

After the riots: The future of Macron’s foreign policy

France’s support for EU and NATO enlargement could be transformational for European security. But domestic unrest and sniping by others could undermine French steadfastness on these major questions

Podcasts

Events

In the media