Twenty years of analysing Europe's balance of power — from the Franco-German axis to the Paris-Rome axis, with continental Europe as the constant.

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ParisNiceRome

EssayistGeopolitical analystHead of foresightBoard member of the Cercle ColbertSecretary general of Héritage & CivilisationFounder of the Paris-Berlin-Moscow Geopolitical NetworkNine times published in Revue Défense NationaleEssayistGeopolitical analystHead of foresightBoard member of the Cercle ColbertSecretary general of Héritage & CivilisationFounder of the Paris-Berlin-Moscow Geopolitical NetworkNine times published in Revue Défense Nationale

About

Smuggler of ideas — Ferryman on the Rhine — Essayist

He lives on the right bank of the Rhine and works in France. His whole body of work sits in that sentence: thirty years spent looking at Europe from its crossing points rather than from its capitals.

A graduate of Sciences Po Strasbourg, he ran Alcatel’s major accounts for Central Europe and Russia from Vienna, before founding the Forum Carolus in Strasbourg at the request of a Minister for Industry and the president of the Alsace Region. He has published three books, one of them translated into Italian and Serbian. His analyses have appeared in specialist journals: Revue Défense Nationale (opens in a new tab), Revue Politique et Parlementaire (opens in a new tab), the Italian geopolitics review Limes (opens in a new tab) and the Indian journal World Affairs (opens in a new tab).

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Expertise

Five fields of expertise

Every field rests on dated, linked publications.

43°42′N 7°16′E

Front page

Nice, the Paris-Rome axis and the Mediterranean

France and Italy together account for close to half the Union's budget. In 2021 they signed a treaty that nothing obliges them to leave dormant. And between Genoa and Marseille they have a city, founded by Greeks, that spent more centuries Italian than French.

ParisNiceRome

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Publications

Latest analyses

Op-ed7 August 2026

Nice: The Revival of a Key Strategic Role for France and Italy in Europe (opens in a new tab)

Le Cronache Lucane · Le Diplomate

The most recent argument: making Nice the pivot of a Paris-Rome axis. The author grounds the case in the city's long history — Greek foundation, Roman then Piedmontese inheritance, culturally Italian until the annexation of 1860 — and in the 2021 Quirinal Treaty, which he places, for the Franco-Italian pairing, where the Élysée Treaty stands for the Franco-German one. The partnership he describes is measured in capabilities: Mediterranean routes, defence industry, energy, digital infrastructure, capital. The text first appeared in Italian, in Le Cronache Lucane on 7 August 2026 — translated by Alessandro Sansoni — and then in French and English in Le Diplomate.

Italian version — Le Cronache Lucane French version — Le Diplomate

Collective op-ed23 June 2026

For the Restoration of Democratic Control over France's Military and Nuclear Commitments (opens in a new tab)

Le Diplomate, 32 signatories

A collective op-ed bringing together thirty-two signatories — among them Pierre Lellouche, Jacques Sapir, general officers and academics. The text calls for stronger parliamentary oversight of military commitments and puts forward nine measures, including constitutional reinforcement of Article 35, a legal definition of co-belligerence, and a mandatory parliamentary debate on vital interests. An institutional proposal, not a commentary.

Collective op-ed29 October 2025

Digital Sovereignty: “France Must Show the Same Ambition It Showed for Nuclear Power in the 1960s” (opens in a new tab)

Le Figaro, FigaroVox — 35 signatories

A collective op-ed signed by thirty-five public figures, Henri de Grossouvre among them, under the description “essayist specialising in international relations and European geopolitics”. The piece warns of French and European cloud dependence on providers subject to US law, discusses the “cloud at the centre” doctrine and SecNumCloud certification, and casts data as the key to artificial intelligence. Its central analogy — the same ambition as for nuclear power in the 1960s — restates in the present tense the argument set out in 2005 in Revue Défense Nationale.

All publications

Where his analyses appear

Focus

Strategic files

One argument, its context, its publications and its landmarks.

Contact

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Write to Henri de Grossouvre Request a speaking engagement