ERIC DANON
Ambassadeur
Ambassador Danon rose through the ranks of Foreign Affairs Office and private sector companies for 37 years. Knight of both the French Légion d’Honneur and the Ordre National du Mérite, he is recognized as an expert in the fields of strategic threats, nuclear issues, disarmament, counter-terrorism and illicit trafficking within his wide network of high-level government officials and heads of prominent international organizations. From 2019 to 2023, Eric Danon has served as Extraordinary and plenipotentiary Ambassador of France to Israel.
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Born and raised in Paris, Eric Danon matriculated at the French Ecole Normale Supérieure de Saint Cloud (1977-1982) while pursuing a Ph.D. in Physics (Agrégation de Sciences Physiques) in 1980. He furthered his education in the world of politics and diplomacy, graduating from both the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po Paris) in 1983 and from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in 1986.
That same year, Eric Danon officially advised the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on economic relations between France and North America. He subsequently served as a Political-Military Affairs Officer in the Minister’s staff until 1991, then branching off into the private sector as Deputy Director for the Satellites of Aerospatiale (now Airbus) and a year later he was nominated to lead the development of high-tech joint ventures between France and Eastern bloc countries.
Returning to Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1997, he was appointed head of the "Security Division" (Sous-direction de la Sécurité), addressing such issues as counter terrorism, organized crime, corruption, and money laundering. In 1999, he served as Head of Staff (Directeur de Cabinet) for the Minister of Cooperation and Development, where he played an active role in a wide range of international development activities. From 2001 to 2007, he worked as international consultant in the fields of cooperation and development.
In 2007, he assumed the role of Extraordinary and plenipotentiary Ambassador of France in the Principality of Monaco. Then from 2008 to 2012, he was nominated as the Ambassador, Permanent Representative of France to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. He headed the French delegation during multilateral negotiations related to disarmament, arms control and the Arms Trade Treaty. He also headed the French delegation during the UN First Committee, the NPT Review Conference (2010), the BWC Review Conference (2011), etc.
During 2012 to 2016, he was the CEO of the French High Council for Strategic Education and Research (Conseil Supérieur de la Formation et de la Recherche Stratégiques), a public-private entity supervised by the Office of the Prime Minister, which initiates, co-ordinates and funds strategic research in France. Concurrently, he was a Diplomatic Advisor to Interpol.
From 2016 to 2019, he assumed the Office of Deputy Director General for political and security affairs in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was a professor in residence at CNAM and the Ecole de Guerre in Paris. He also acted as a contributing advisor to several international expert commissions and think tanks working on security related issues.