Ambassador Michel Duclos is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East Programs, focused on Syria and the Levant.

Duclos began his diplomatic career at the Policy Planning Staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France, where he served as deputy director from 1984 to 1987. He then became counselor at the French Embassy in Moscow and subsequently in Bonn during the time of perestroika and the unification of Germany. He directed the MFA’s disarmament section from 1994 to 1998 when France resumed nuclear testing, and was involved in negotiating the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

In Brussels from 1998 to 2002, he served as ambassador of France to the WEU. He was deputy permanent representative of France to the United Nations in New York from 2002 to 2006, during the conflict over Iraq and the reform summit of the 2005 United Nations. He served as ambassador of France to Syria from 2006 to 2009 at a key moment during bilateral Franco-Syrian relations. He subsequently served as diplomatic counselor in the cabinet of the Ministry of the Interior from 2009 to 2012 and as ambassador of France to Switzerland from 2012 to 2014.

Duclos has written extensively on international issues, and has always followed closely the work of think tanks and parallel diplomacy structures. In February 2016, he assumed the leadership of the International Diplomatic Academy as director general, where he focuses on governance issues, economic diplomacy and mediation as a means toward conflict resolution. He also serves as a senior advisor for Institut Montaigne, a French think tank focused on improving economic competitiveness and social cohesion.