About the Forum

The Forum of Strategic Dialogue (FSD) is a unique vehicle for informal consultations between Europe and Israel's top governmental officials and experts and allows for out-of-the-box problem-solving thinking in the fields of defence, security, foreign affairs and economy. In so doing, the FSD contributes to the development of policy, based on the mutual understanding of European and Israeli strategic environments, needs and common interests.

Goals

To promote an in-depth dialogue between Israeli and European officials and experts involved mainly (but not exclusively) in the fields of national security and foreign policy
To enhance mutual understanding and advance joint interests
To establish professional ties and personal relations between decision-makers and members of the policy community

The first Strategic Dialogue, between France and Israel, was launched by the European Leadership Network (ELNET) in 2010. The success of this event led to the development of collaboration with prestigious European and Israeli think tanks, research centres and governmental institutions, and to the establishment of the FSD in 2013 as an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit, and non-partisan entity affiliated with ELNET. Today, the FSD carries out annual Israeli-European bilateral dialogues with senior partners, governmental and non-governmental, from key European countries—France, Germany, the UK, Spain, and Poland, as well as with the EU and occasionally with NATO. The FSD has also launched an annual US-Europe-Israel Trilateral Strategic Dialogue in 2018, as well as a Europe-Israel track and an annual Europe - Middle East Forum in 2020.

Executive Staff

Brig. Gen. (ret.) Michael Herzog - FSD Director

International Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Senior Fellow at BICOM and the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI). He retired from active duty in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in late 2010, after a long and distinguished career. His service included heading the Strategic Planning Division of the IDF and working with four ministers of defense as senior military aide and chief of staff. Since 1993, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Herzog has actively participated in nearly all of Israel’s peace negotiations with the Palestinian, Syrians and Jordanians, including in the last round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations (2013 to 2014). He recently published an insiders’ unique summary of this last round of negotiations.

Pascaline Wagemans - FSD Deputy Director

Former Project & Research Manager at the FSD (2014 to 2017), Project & Research Coordinator at the European Leadership Network (ELNET) (2013 to 2014), and an evidence-based consultant (2010 to 2011) and Business Analyst (2008 to 2009) at IMS Health, a leading global information and technology services company. Ms. Wagemans holds an MA in conflict resolution and mediation from Tel Aviv University, as well as an MA and a BA in Business Engineering from Solvay Business School.

Members

François Heisbourg - France

Chairman, Council of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy; Chairman, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London; Special Adviser, Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (FRS), Paris. His career has included senior positions in government: Mr Heisbourg was a member of the French mission to the UN and an international Security Adviser to the Minister of Defence. He has sat on a number of national and international blue-ribbon bodies. Most recently, this included the French Defence and National Security White Paper, the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, the International Commission on the Balkans, and the EU Commission’s group of personalities on security research and development.

Dr. Bruno Tertrais - France

Deputy Director, La Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (FRS), Paris. In 2007-2008, he was a member of the French presidential commission on the White Paper on Defence and Security, as well as a member of the French ministerial commission on the White Paper on Foreign and European policy. From October 1996 to August 2001, Dr Tertrais was Special Assistant to the Director of Strategic Affairs at the French Ministry of Defence and prior to that, a visiting fellow at the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica. He served as Director of the Civilian Affairs Committee at the NATO Assembly. He holds a Doctorate of Political Science from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris. In 2010, he was awarded the Vauban Prize for his distinguished career.

Prof. Yossi Mekelberg - UK

Faculty Lead on Outreach Projects, Faculty of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Regent’s University; Senior Consulting Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Programme, Chatham House. He has been teaching at Regent’s University since 1996, and before that at King’s College, London. He has been with the MENA Programme at Chatham House since 2002, first as an Associate Fellow and more recently as a Senior Consulting Research Fellow. His fields of expertise include the politics of the Middles East, Israeli politics, the Middle East Peace Process, international relations theory, and US foreign policy towards the region. For four years he wrote a weekly column for the Al-Arabiya network before moving to write twice a week for Arab News. He is also a member of the Human Rights Watch London Committee.