Expert Profile



Dr Paul Vallet
Position(s) Lecturer and Researcher in European, American and Russian History

Dr Paul Vallet is an Associate Fellow within the Global Fellowship Initiative of the GCSP. Born in Washington DC on Nov. 4 1970, Dr. Vallet holds dual US and French citizenships and grew up both in Washington and in Basel. He studied International Relations at Sciences Po Paris (1989-1992) and at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (1992-1994), and in 2006 received a PhD in History from the University of Cambridge, on a thesis supervised by Prof. Christopher Andrew, “The origins and development of an Anglo-French Entente 1902-1914”. As Adjunct Assistant Professor, he taught Modern History and International relations undergraduate and graduate courses at Sciences Po Paris from 2002 to 2012 and at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales in Paris from 2007 to 2012. He was a visiting Assistant Professor at the Fletcher School in 2011 and at the University of Mainz in 2009 and 2012.

Dr. Vallet’s most recent publications are “Plädoyer für europäische Verteidigungskräfte” in Friedensgutachten 2014(Hamburg and Berlin: 2014) and the chapter “France: Exercizing Power and Influence Across the Ages” in The Routledge Handbook of Diplomacy and Statecraft (London: 2011). Earlier, he was a co-author of L’Entente cordiale de Fachoda à la Grande Guerre (Brussels: 2004) and Cross-Channel Currents. 100 years of Anglo-French Relations(London and Paris: 2004). A resident of Geneva since 2012, Dr Vallet has also received a Certificate as Generalist in marketing and corporate communications from SAWI Lausanne in 2014, and the Certificates of the GCSP’s “Navigating Political Transitions” and “Building a National Strategy for Countering Extremist Violence” courses in 2015. He served in the French Army (110th Infantry, Franco-German Brigade) in 1994-1995. Dr. Vallet speaks fluent English and French and a fair level of German. He has appeared to give commentary on several international television news channels, France 24, CNN, Russia Today, Al Jazeera English and Bloomberg TV between 2008 and 2014 and spoken for programs on Radio France Internationale and National Public Radio’s “Marketplace”.

Dr. Vallet’s research interests are European, American and Russian History and Political Institutions, International and European Organizations, Foreign Policy-Making processes, Military History and Defense Policy-Making, Media coverage of Politics and International affairs, intellectual and literary History. His main hobbies are fiction writing, photography and drawing, travelling  and mountain sports, hiking and skiing.