President of the Arab World Institute since February 2026, Anne-Claire Legendre previously served as Advisor on North Africa and the Middle East to the President of the French Republic from December 2023 to February 2026. A career diplomat, she was Spokesperson and Director of Communications and Press at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs from 2021 to 2023. Prior to this appointment, she served as Ambassador of France to the State of Kuwait (2020–2021) and as Consul General of France in New York from 2016 to 2020. Between 2013 and 2016, she served in the office of Laurent Fabius, then Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, as Advisor on North Africa and the Middle East. Earlier, she was posted to the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in New York (2010–2013), where she was responsible for Middle East affairs at the United Nations Security Council. She also served within the Directorate for North Africa and the Middle East at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, overseeing bilateral relations between France and Algeria (2008–2010), after contributing to the development of European consular cooperation within the Directorate for French Nationals Abroad (2007–2008). She began her diplomatic career at the French Embassy in Yemen as a Communications Advisor (2005–2006). A graduate of Sciences Po, she also studied Arabic at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales and Modern Literature at Sorbonne Nouvelle University.
For a reasonably open world
