Director
Álvaro de Vasconcelos
has been Director of the EU Institute for Security Studies since May 2007.
Prior to this, he headed the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon, of which he is a co-founder, from 1981 to 2007 where he launched several networks including the Euro-Latin American Forum and EuroMeSCo.
As well as being a regular columnist in the Portuguese and international press, he is author and co-editor of many books, articles and reports, notably in the areas of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), Euro-Mediterranean relations and on the theme of world order, such as Portugal: A European Story, La PESC: Ouvrir l'Europe au Monde, The European Union, Mercosul and the New World Order, and A European Strategy for the Mediterranean.
Álvaro de Vasconcelos is a Chevalier of the Order of the Légion d’Honneur (France) and a Comendador do Ordem do Rio Branco (Brazil). He is married to Maria do Rosário de Moraes Vaz, Director of Programmes at the IEEI, Lisbon. They have three daughters.
Tel : + 33 (0)1 56 89 19 40
E-mail : Alvaro.Vasconcelos@iss.europa.eu
| Denise Lamps |
Former directors
Nicole Gnesotto
who is French, was the first Director of the EU Institute for Security Studies, from 2002 until May 2007, after having been Director of the Institute for Security Studies of the Western European Union (WEU) from 1 October 1999 until 31 December 2001. An Agrégée de Lettres modernes, she studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and was formerly (1994-99) a professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) and chargée de mission to the Director of the Institut français des Relations internationales (IFRI). A specialist in security issues, she was a member of the Institute’s research team from 1990 to 1993, after having been deputy head of the French Foreign Ministry’s Centre d’Analyse et de Prévision (policy planning staff) from 1986 to 1990. She is the author of many publications on strategic issues and European security. She has recently been appointed to the chair of European Union studies at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers.
Guido Lenzi
who is Italian, was Director of the WEU Institute from October 1995 to September 1999. He was previously Minister Plenipotentiary at the Political Department of the Italian Foreign Ministry. He joined the Italian Foreign Service in 1964. During his thirty-year career as a diplomat, he served in Algiers, Lausanne, London, Moscow and New York, and in Rome headed the Asia department and the NATO desk, as well as being diplomatic adviser to the Minister of Defence and President of the Senate. In October 1999 he rejoined the Foreign Ministry in Rome. He is an Associate Member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and a member of the Governing Board of the Istituto Affari Internazionali. After a period as Permanent Representative of Italy to the OSCE in Vienna, he returned to Rome to the Cabinet of the Minister of the Interior. He has now retired.
John Roper
who is British, was the first Director of the WEU Institute, from April 1990 to September 1995. A former university lecturer and former member of parliament, prior to becoming Director he held a senior position on the staff of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA). John Roper was a member of the House of Commons from 1970 to 1983, Opposition spokesman on defence (1979-81) and Chief Whip of the Social Democratic Party from 1981 to 1983. He is now a member of the House of Lords and professorial fellow at the Institute for German Studies, Birmingham University.