May 7, 2026

PDSF 2026

In March, we had the pleasure to attend the PDSF 2026 as academic partners of the organisers ACADEM (the Defence Academy of the École militaire), giving us the opportunity to host and moderate a panel on “sovereignty put to the test by cartels and keyboards – new patterns and links between drug trafficking and organized crime” (in French) with Dimitri Zoulas, Béatrice Godefroy and Général de division Sylvain Noyau.

The second panel we hosted covered “African defense policy and the emergence of an ‘African model’” (also in French), with Senegal’s defence minister Général Birame Diop, Nana Mariam Maïga, Général de brigade Stéphane Lacroix and Général de division Pascal Ianni. The panelists highlighted the necessity for context, communication and cooperation but also the need to adapt and fill the space for exchange with respect. In the words of Général Birame Diop: “We might not have the same skin colour, religion or history but we share this humanity and therefore, we must cooperate.” This was followed by a “café stratégique”, where Yan St-Pierre took part in the discussion on cognitive warfare and disinformation, together with Nana Maïga, who cautioned that “perception is the reality”.

We concluded that day with a side event which we co-organised with ONM’s Amber French-Griette to learn about “Ukraine’s Civic Power in the Face of War” and the insights for Europe. The Organization for Nonviolent Movements (ONM) launched their journal “Across Faultlines: Ukrainian Freedom – Collective Agency in National Defense” and we used the opportunity to announce our partnership. Highlights of that evening were the speech of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and the interview Yan St-Pierre conducted with graphic novelist Xavier Dorison, who said that “stories build and feed our imagination, our values, and our future”.

Afterwards, Jamila Raqib, Olena Tregub, Amber French-Griette and Col. Andrii Ordynovych (ret.) discussed, how civilians have resisted in Ukraine in the last four years, thus adding a vital part to the country’s defence.

On the last day, Yan St-Pierre was a panelist alongside Tore Refslund Hamming, Marc Hecker, Michel Faury, Alexandre Rodde and Martin Millet on “Islamist terrorism: the current threat assessment” organised by Laurence Bindner and her organisation Jihadoscope.

Finishing that day, Yan St-Pierre gave a presentation on the use of AI in planning terror attacks, sabotage and disruptive warfare as part of an academic colloquium, organised by Christine Dugoin-Clément, associate professor at Université Panthéon-Sorbonne and associate researcher at IHEMI (the Institut des hautes études du ministère de l’Intérieur).

PDSF 2026

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