Bernard Boene L'Ecole Superieure Militaire de Saint-Cyr, France

Dr. Bernard Boëne was educated in Paris (Sorbonne and Sciences Po). A professor of sociology specializing in military action, martial institutions and civil-military relations in comparative perspective, he spent most of his career at France’s military academy, Saint-Cyr, where he ended up as Director general for academic affairs and research (and as such helped engineer the school’s 2002 major reform of Army officer education and training). He sat on the Committee which paved the way for the 2005 legislative reform of French military personnel’s legal status. He was then appointed as a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Education, in charge of primary, secondary and higher education establishments on Reunion Island, as well as of external academic relations in the Indian Ocean. He taught at other times at Sciences Po Paris as well as at the universities of Toulouse and (most recently) Rennes. He retired in 2012 from the French national university system as Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of sociology.

Professor Boëne is vice-president of the Geneva Foundation for Governance & Public Policy. He has served in elected senior positions in several international social science associations (Executive Council member, Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces & Society; vice-president, International Sociological Association’s research committee on armed forces & conflict resolution; chair of the European Research Group on the Military & Society [ERGOMAS]). He has contributed 7 books and over 100 articles, chapters or research reports in six languages to the social science literature in the military field.

Dr. Boëne is a knight of the French National Order of Merit, a Commander of the Palmes Académiques, and a recipient of the Gold Medal for voluntary military service. He is a laureate of the Morris Janowitz Career Achievement Award (Chicago, 2009).