Gérard Araud
Ambassador of France to the United States (2014-2019); French Representative of France to the United Nations (2009-2014); Former Ambassador of France to Israel (2003-2006);
From Reagan to Trump, Gérard Araud has lived diplomacy from the inside—beginning his diplomatic career under Reagan and later serving as France’s ambassador to the U.S. under President Obama and President Trump. He’s shaped strategy at the UN, navigated crisis in Israel, and decoded America from Washington. Araud takes audiences behind the velvet curtain of diplomacy and into rooms where nuclear standoffs were defused, hostages’ lives debated, and history rewrote itself in real-time. He doesn’t explain the world—he clarifies it.
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Gérard Araud has spent his life reading the world’s fault lines before they cracked.
A career diplomat, he has served as France’s ambassador to the United Nations, Israel, and the United States — navigating war rooms, back channels, and presidential briefings with the same precision others might bring to a chessboard. From the Iran nuclear deal to the early days of the Trump presidency, he has not only witnessed history — he’s shaped its tone, its pace, its outcome.
Today, he brings this rare fluency to a world in flux. With clarity, wit, and quiet authority, he unpacks the shifting codes of geopolitics, the complexity of U.S. foreign policy, and the unspoken dynamics behind global power plays. His thinking is sharp, but never sharp-edged. His delivery is diplomatic in the best sense of the word.
What makes him resonate so strongly with today’s leaders isn’t just his résumé; it’s his ability to make sense of complexity without diluting it. He speaks the language of high-stakes decision-making, of nuance, of long views in short timeframes. Gérard Araud speaks less about knowing what’s next and more about understanding what’s underneath the current geopolitical issues. In a world that often mistakes noise for information, he offers a signal. In uncertain times, that might be the most strategic asset of all.
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Gérard Araud
Gerard Araud on Foreign policy in an Unstable World
Gérard Araud’s Speech Topics
A Conversation with Gérard Araud
Gérard Araud shares a sharp, insider’s view of the evolving relationship between the U.S. and Europe — economically, diplomatically, and strategically — along with a deeper understanding of how American policy decisions are likely to shape the global landscape.
Gérard Araud Topics & Types
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