Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer

Dr. Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer has been the Ambassador-designate of the French Republic to the United Republic of Tanzania since August 10, 2026. Since 2022, he has served as France’s ambassador to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, where he led a team of 25 people addressing key Indo-Pacific, climate, and regional security issues. In this capacity, he managed several major crises: Category 5 cyclones, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake that destroyed the embassy, and complex evacuations during the unrest in neighboring New Caledonia. He was awarded the Medal of Honor by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs for acts of courage and dedication.

Previously, he held several positions at the intersection of diplomacy, defense policy, and strategic analysis. From 2016 to 2022, he served as director of the Institute for Strategic Research at the École Militaire (IRSEM). Notably, together with Alexandre Jubelin, he launched Le Collimateur, which has become the leading French-language podcast dedicated to defense and international security, as well as LeRubicon.org, a French-language platform for strategic analysis that he continues to co-direct.

From 2013 to 2016, he served as a policy officer for “Cross-cutting Issues and Security” at the Center for Analysis, Forecasting, and Strategy (CAPS) at the Quai d’Orsay. In this capacity, he advised the Minister of Foreign Affairs on issues of international security, global governance, counterterrorism, international law, and emerging threats. He had previously served as an attaché at the French Embassy in Turkmenistan.

An Honorary Alumnus of the NATO Defense College and a former member of the Defense Ethics Committee, his leadership has also been recognized internationally: he was named a Munich Young Leader by the Munich Security Conference in 2018, a High Potential by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2019, and a Leader in Governance by the Civil Service College of Singapore that same year.

Before joining the French civil service, Dr. Jeangène Vilmer pursued an international academic career. With degrees in philosophy (bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D.), law (bachelor’s, LL.M., and postdoctoral fellowship), and political science (Ph.D.), he received a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship from Canada to conduct research at McGill University’s Faculty of Law. He had previously served as a Lecturer in International Relations at King’s College London and as a postdoctoral researcher at ENS Ulm. During his doctoral studies, he also spent a year conducting research at Yale University and taught at the University of Montreal.