Brigadier General Pesme (Rted) is a French combat engineer officer, who specialized during the first part of his career in underwater reconnaissance and river-crossing operations (1987-1995).
He then developed an expertise in European defense issues and the transatlantic relationship through various assignments: in France, at the
Joint Staff (2003-2006 and 2015-2018) and the Delegation for Strategic Affairs, where he was head of the North America desk (2008-2011); at NATO, first at Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk as Executive Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (2013-2015) and then at the NATO’s International Military Staff in Brussels, where he was Deputy Director of the Policy and Capabilities Division from 2018 to 2022.
He also commanded the 1st Marine Education and Training Battalion at Fort de France (2006-2008) and was deployed with the NATO Training Mission Afghanistan (2011-2012).
He is a graduate of Saint-Cyr Military Academy (1986), the Canadian Forces College’s Command and Staff Course (2000) and holds a master’s degree in Geopolitics from Paris-Est University, Marne la Vallée (1999). He attended the 3rd session of the Diplomatic Institute of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2003 and the High-level course of the European Security and Defense College in 2010. He taught at Saint-Cyr, where he was head of the international relations studies department, and at the Institute of Political Studies in Rennes.
He left active service in 2022 and has since run a strategy and international development consulting practice serving private-sector companies. He also delivers training on NATO–industry relations and on NATO more broadly and speaks at conferences on European defence issues.
Expertise
- European defense
- Transatlantic relationship
- Arctic
Selected Publications
- Frédéric Pesme « Préparer la Guerre qui vient, sans les Américains », Institut d’Etudes de Géopolitique Appliquée, 2026
- Frédéric Pesme « Comprendre l’écosystème d’acquisition de l’OTAN », Institut Français des Relations Internationales, 2025
- Frédéric Pesme « The Gordian Knot of European Defence » , CDA Insititute 2025.
- Frédéric Pesme. « European Defence is not a burden – Allies should rather share responsibilities », NATO Briefs Series, n°11, Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, 2022.
- Frédéric Pesme. « Après Varsovie, l’Otan, la PSDC et les enjeux de la défense européenne », Revue Défense Nationale, vol. 794, no. 9, 2016, pp. 103-108.
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